São Paulo

We arrived to São Paulo a couple days ago and are staying with my friend Orlando, who I met in Peru last summer. We have been sleeping all the time, mostly being lazy, resting from travelling. Its really nice. We went out to a techno dance club unitl 5 am on Saturday night, so crazy. I can read most Portuguese because it is similar to written Spanish, but understanding people speaking is very difficult. It is nice being with Orlando because he can talk for us and keep us from getting robbed or something. Last night we drove all over Sao Paulo and stopped at a June Party. This is a thing that the Catholic church does during the month of June. Local food, drink, and tasty desserts. We met some people, I tried to talk in Portuguese with only some success and filled myself with delicious food. We had steak on a stick, sweet rice milk, some tapioca thing with coconut inside. You pay for plastic chips beforehand and then give those to the vendors to get the food. It was really interesting. We will go to Rio in the morning. I hope we stay safe.

Iguazú Falls

Today we went to the famed Iguazú falls and it was unbelievable. I have been to Niagara and this killed Niagara. We walked all over the place and then took a boat ride right up to part of the falls and got totally drenched by the spray. Tomorrow we will cross to Brazil and see the falls from that side and then continue on. Right now the camera card isnt working so I will add a picture later.

Craziness and cultura

One of the reasons for travelling this summer is to speed date Latin America. I think that I want to spend a year or two living somewhere and working in LA after I graduate, so I am spending a couple weeks in each of 5 countries and seeing who I like. As of now, Buenos Aires seems like the place I would enjoy the most. The week was filled with much wine and maté and exploring of the city. We went to the cemetery, a town of tombs creepily filled with hundreds of cats and saw the graves of past presidents and Evita. The highlight was going to a Boca Juniors game and sitting in the crazy hooligan section. I have never been to anything that even comes close to this experience. Flags, smoke, flares...chaos surrounded us. I hadnt seen a goal in all of the three previous soccer games I had been to and Boca won 6-2. It was awesome. Chad got felt up by someone trying to pickpocket him, someone slapped me in the side of head, and Catherine and Brittany P(who joined us for a few days from Uruguay) got lots of comments and attempted pickups. The singing and cheering never stopped, shoving broke out in the second half, and we could barely see the game for all the flags being waved and smoke in the air. It was great. Other things we did besides seeing most of the famous sights were watch a tango performance on the street (which Catherine took part in mostly against her will), went to an antiques street market, and along with a few thousand others, went to a professional drum circle in a warehouse one night. Chad and I parted ways with Catherine at the airport last night and then took a 17hr bus ride to Iguazu, where we will see the waterfalls tomorrow and then off to Brazil we go.

Buenos Aires

If our journey bears any resemblance to Che´s motorcycle diaries, it would have to be called the long-ass bus ride diaries. We just set a new record of 22 hours on a bus. We decided to skip Mendoza for lack of funds and time and come straight to BA. I already have to say that BA is my favorite of the cities I have visited in Latin America. We found a great place to stay, Pangea Hostel. Juanito, you probably never read this blog, but you would love it. We have been drinking mate and walking around the city in the rain. We are hoping to go to a Boca Juniors game on Sunday and see a Tango show sometime soon.

Argentina

We took the most beautiful bus ride over the Andes to cross into Argentina. Apparently my charango was suspicious because the customs guy checked it out really closely. There was snow on the ground, forests, and lakes. We arrived to Bariloche which is on Lago Nahual Huapi, the most gorgeous lake with snow capped peaks all around. We found a great hostel with a view and really nice owners. In the evening, we watched the Argentina game on tv which Argentina almost lost. Then I stayed up playing pool in the garage with three argentine guys and played charango with one of them until 3am. Yesterday we hiked for 5 hours through woods on the border of the lake with great views. Last night there were protests all over the country and the people here drove around honking their horns with their blinkers on. People were banging pots and pans and marching. Apparently Buenos Aires was crazy. We are probably going to Mendoza next, the wine capital...hiccup...

Last days of Chile

I kind of forgot to blog for the last week or so, I will try to remember the highlights. Skiing was incredible. I had never skied anywhere but around Boone, so the Andes were a bit different. We skied all day surrounded by snowcapped peaks and overlooking the city of Santiago far down below. By the end of the day, my legs were dead tired and we left our Bolivian (previously USA) ski pants on a bench after getting much more use out of them than the $3 we paid. Catherine arrived the next day and looked shocked to see us at the airport like we werent actually going to show up. We walked around Santiago then went to Valpo and the beach for a while. We were wanting to try some fish from the Pacific so we asked what we food we should try. We were horribly led astray. What I thought was catfish came out looking nothing like any sort of fish. I then decided that it must be squid and ate it, even though it tasted pretty awful. The next day I found out that it was in fact....wait for it....cow intestines. To follow up that great experience, we spent 17 hours on a bus the next day and made it all the way down south to Osorno in the lakes district of Patagonia. We got a cabaña with our own stove (a first) and cooked our own food which was exciting. We were overlooking a lake, but it was cold and rainy all day. We hiked in the rain the next day and then spent over an hour boiling ourselves in a hot spring. The lady at the hostel was incredibly nice and made us homemade (including the butter and cheese) breakfast every day with fresh pie.

Santiago and surroundings

We arrived in Santiago a few days ago after spending the whole night on a bus. I like the city. It is nice to walk around in, relatively safe, with lots of parks, etc. The city is backdropped by beautiful snow-capped mountains. We have probably eaten 10 completos each- hot dogs with diced tomatoes and guacamole on top. They are cheap and tasty. Yesterday we went to Valparaiso to watch the international friendly futbol game between Chile and Panama. It was a 0-0 tie, but an awesome experience. We learned the futbol chants and I had my chile shirt on and Chad bought a scarf. When the Panama players´names were being announced, the Chilean crowd yelled ¨concha de tu madre¨after each one. It was a fun night. We returned to Santiago this morning and have been walking around the center of the city. We walked through the presidential palace that was the site of the 1973 coup that resulted in the death of leftist President Salvador Allende and in which the US graciously lent a helping hand. Tomorrow we ski and then Catherine arrives the next day.

Huelga de los Camioneros

In San Pedro de Atacama, we went on a 40km bike ride through desert formations with the French and Australian couples. Along the way, we passed sand dunes, salt crystals, and even a mine field. The next morning, we parted ways with our foreign friends and began the most intense part of the trip yet. Our goal: hitch-hiking. For both the economic appeal and the experience. We took a bus to Antofogasta, which is on the Panamerican highway which runs north-south (the only way) in Chile. Then we started asking around where we could find trucks to take. Right when we were boarding the local bus to the crossroads where we hoped to find a ride, I glanced down at a newspaper and saw the headline which was to foreshadow the next day and a half of our trip. Truck drivers in Chile are striking. We ended up at a random crossroads outside of the city. A Brazilian woman named Claudia who is around 30 got dropped off there also and we joined forces. We found a ride in a small pickup to the big highway 20km away. We all three crammed in the front, I was practically sitting on the gear shifter. When we arrived at the highway, the driver was forced to give a crowd of rowdy striking drivers a toll to pass through. We walked along the road for about an hour with our thumbs out with no luck. We were walking past industrial plants breathing bad fumes, etc. Finally luck came and one of the very few truckers still driving stopped and we climbed in. We rode with him for 3 or so hours and at one point after dark, all three of us had to hide in the drivers bed area when we went through a police checkpoint. I was unaware of the fact that it is illegal for drivers to take passengers. The driver eventually stopped at a truck stop type place that was more of a family´s house with a small restaurant attached. He couldnt go any further because the road was blocked by strikers. Chad, Claudia and I walked into the restaurant into the surprised stares of about 25 truckers. We ordered food and watched the soccer game on tv. The question of where we were sleeping was becoming more and more important. After a long time of confusion and different ideas, we finally were offered a room (for a small payment) from the family who owned the restaurant. There were two small beds but three of us. We pushed the beds together, Chad and I flipped a coin for who would have to sleep next to the sick Brazilian woman, and I won (meaning I didnt have to). haha So someone wouldnt have to sleep in the crack, we slept across the two beds horizontally, all three in a tight row. She was shivering with a fever most of the night and I woke up once to her calling out Chad´s name to turn on the light for her. The whole experience was crazy. We starched hitching this morning and had little luck to begin with. I got out my charango and just sat on the road playing to entertain myself. Finally a pickup came by and took us to a city over an hour away. From there we couldnt get a ride so we took a bus to the city where we are now. I am exhausted. We are about to take a night bus to La Serena which is maybe 5 hours north of Santiago. Sorry this was so long, but it was nuts. The picture is of striking truckers with a road block set up to stop other truckers from working.

Salar and stuff...

We left Uyuni to take a 2.5 day tour of the salar and other otherworldly places. The salar is hundreds of square miles of salt, one of the most bizarre landscapes I,ve seen. The first night we stayed in a small hotel made completely of salt blocks, with the entire floor being loose salt grains. It was cold, but not too bad. We drank and played cards with the two couples we were travelling with, Australian and French. We learned a french card game that is similar to hearts. The second day, I started to feel sick and it only got worse. It must have bacteria or something. I started vomiting early in the evening and tried to go to bed early, but guess what? It got down to 20 below freezing! I slept a total of maybe 2.5 hours and had to get up to vomit in the night. We were at 4300 meters (over 14,000 ft) and I was extra dehydrated because of the vomiting. Needless to say, it was a rough night. We saw a volcano, geysers, wild foxes, vicuñas (llama family), flamingos, etc. It was incredible. We crossed into Chile yesterday and now are in a small town in the driest desert in the world (Atacama). I feel completely well now and it also feels good to be at lower elevation and in a warmer climate. Chile is very different from Bolivia. I am not used to seeing white people that are not tourists. The sound of the Spanish is more difficult to understand and everything is more expensive. Bolivia is the poorest South American country and the most indigenous, very different from Chile who has received many European immigrants over the past two centuries.