Onward and Upward

Trips tend to have stages, I've noticed, both physically and psychologically.

Ours started with the four girls, fresh out of studying, full of enthusiasm and amazement of the world and ready to jump into tourist traps because we've got to see it! We got up early, stayed out late, and talked to everyone we met. Then it was Kira and I, and we ran around without plans, free and liberated and ready to relax into the daily nothings and everythings of traveling, talking to people who we found interesting and having a relatively chill time of it. We are now with Angela, friend from UVM, and we've spent the whole day in Cordoba sleeping and eating. It's more organized but more careless, and minds are turning towards going home, now less than two weeks away.

Bariloche was frigid. We arrived in the middle of a storm, a dark afternoon of cold rain and incredible wind. In the hostal, tallest building in town from which we couldn't see the ski town spreading below us, we met up with Kira's friends from school David and Angela, who had been skiing for a couple of days. We celebrated the fourth of July, our great day of independence, by celebrating the birthday of the hostal with a bunch of Irish and English, and a few South Americans. It was a potluck, so we brought the beer and made pigs in a blanket, good ole American dining. The pigs weren't so much of a hit with the foreigners... shows what they know. Outside, it started to snow.

The morning broke beautiful, and finally we had a view of the snowglobe world spreading around us. The lake is unbelievable, stretching in a bowl that mixes the white water of glaciers with the deepest blues and greens and rising in swollen waves topped by angry whitecaps. What else could we do but head to the slopes! And so I got my first taste of what real skiing is. The resort is easily five times bigger than any resort I have skiied at, and the FRESH POWDER was up to my knees at points. Needless to say, my inexperienced powder skiing left me on the ground quite often. The view made up for it all though, and by the end of the afternoon I was getting the hang of it. I really want to go back now! I actually had to yank my arm out of powder and dig dig dig for my ski after one epic wipeout...

Going out dancing that night with some of the Argentine ski bums from the resort was quite a blast, especially since the hugely entertaining Irish and English boys accompanied us. We trekked out through the whipping snow to find the warmth of "the best baliches in all of South America!!!" and to dance until very late. We came back and no one was tired, so we visited our childhood and raced in the elevators for a good hour or two. Then we realized David had gone to bed with the room key, so stayed awake in the kitchen until the reception woke up and let us in at 7. At one point the Irishman woke up and came out into the kitchen in his boxers, poured himself a small mug of Whiskey, drank up, and went back to bed. Gotta love the Irish!

Now we're headed north.

Mendoza was the perfect break in the middle of another 25+ hour bus ride to Cordoba. Arriving around 9:30 in the morning, we spent the day on rented bikes visiting a few of the wineries in the area. We got to taste some of theh delicious and well-known Mendoza Malbec wine, which is almost exclusive to Mendoza because of its dry climate, warm days and cool nights. It was really interesting to see the way they make wine artesanally, and finally learn how to test for good wine! Now I don't have to pretend every time I do the little swirl-sniff combo. It felt good to use my legs after so long sitting, and after so much time without real exercise. We also went to an artesanal liquor and chocolate store, which was divine. I bought my pops some amazing Coñac, which the next day ended up in pieces in my backpack. All of my clothes are now the lovely aroma of Coñac...

I'm still not really used to the buses, especially when they tell you you're getting dinner and breakfast, and there is no such thing.

My dad has a picture very similar to this one of him and two buddies skiing in Germany when (I think) he was about the age I am now. Cool, eh? I think he's even on the left in the photo too.

Now we're in Cordoba, and today is their independence day. Instead of celebrating like we do though, everything is closed. There is no one on the street. I'm kind of glad... we went out Argentinian style last night, which means we left the hostal at one in the morning, danced our bottoms off to electronic music, and stumbled back into the hostal at 7:30. Sleeping and making some form of macaroni and cheese were in order. And laundry.

Yesterday we went to one of the famous types of Argentine restaurant: a tenedor libre. That literally means "free fork," as in uninhibited. Think buffet, but huge. There is a section for parrilla (grill), pasta, Asian, bread, potatos, seafood, soup, salad, dessert, and wine. And it's all delicious, not like Golden Corral or anything. Here is some of the damage we did, after they removed a stack or two of plates.

Tomorrow we're going to look for a car rental place to make the trip up to Salta. Some of the most beautiful things in the area aren't actually in the city, and since we're sick of buses we thought we'd do it a bit differently. It's going to be weird to be driving again...

As I said before, thoughts are turning towards home more and more. It's kind of strange... I'm homesick for my Chilean family but soo excited for being home in the States. I think subconsciously I already know that I might not ever see my Chilean fam again (no, I will, one day!) and so I'm already starting to miss them, ademàs I'll be seeing them sooner and coming with gifts I know they'll love! Thinking about home brings great thoughts and images of who I'll be seeing and what I'll be doing, where I'll be living, all the plans I have for the coming year. There are so many things I want to accomplish or do with my schooling and my life in general... it's going to be tough to find enough time for it all. If it's what I love though, I guess it's not really finding time, but more making a life. It's just all so invigorating! And only two weeks away.

That scares me.

Feel the love baby! This girl has been by my side almost without a break since June 7, and always close for the months before. I'm really going to miss seeing that rubia every day! We live, we grow, we change, we move. But you are always close to those who matter.

See you soon, everybody!

Memories bend to the better

Oh, to be in a house again!

Kira and I have successfully left the Bermuda Triangle of Copacabana, Bolivia. A bus to La Paz and a full day and a half of searching resulted in us dropping some hefty cash for a plane ticket to Buenos Aires. It's strange though, how the place followed us... we woke up yesterday and found ourselves sharing a cab with an Englishman we had met there, and during out layover in Santa Cruz chatted for a bit with a Spaniard who had left the day before us. As Kira described it, right now we want nothing to do with the place, but it also feels in a way as if we will never leave it. I really did have an amazing time, it was just absolutely ridiculous.

We are now staying with friends here in Buenos Aires, for a few days of rest and good showers. Thank goodness!


Here is Kira in Aguas Calientes drinking the beverage Chicha, formerly drunken only from Moche sex pots (you've seen them). It's a beer made out of corn, and only very recently we found out that they make it by someone chewing on the plant and then stewing it for a long time. Kira drank the entire cup, despite it's horrible taste, to appease the Pachamama for her absence at our offering. Believe me, it's disgusting.

In the nearly 2-hour taxi ride from the airport (novices... getting lost... you know it's bad when the extranjeras you're driving have to tell you how to get to where you're going) I felt almost like I was coming home from the airport at Raleigh/Durham. Maybe it's because I've always left there at night, and BsAs is by far the most westernized place I've been in ages... or maybe it's because this whole time I've had it in my mind that a plane is what would take me home, and so my subconscious told me that I was getting off a plane and going home. Whatever it is, it made me miss home more than I have yet. I'm almost tired of the first thing I always say to someone is "Hola, que tal, me llamo Abi."

Here us a view if Cusco from the balcony of a cute little cafe we had dinner in. This was a pretty gray day, and getting near sunset, so it doesn't show the beauty that truly is Cusco. I don't know why, but from Cusco up to now I haven't been taking many photos... there are exactly nine photos from our last adventure in Copacabana, which is strange since it was so intense. I don't have ANY pictures of our buddies there... strange.

Here are Kira and Denis climbing up out of the Incan tunnels. Sweet, no? It'd be crazy to take Outing Club there and do some Incan reenactments... maybe we could even go caving in warpaint and pretend to fight conquistadores when we find our way out. I've got to say it was pretty sweet.


View from the plane between La Paz and Santa Cruz. I was trying to capture what it looks like from above, but photos from planes are never very clear... But here is what La Paz looks like from above. Remember those cartoons when we were kids where somebody ran off of a cliff, looked around a bit scared, then fell to the ground a whistling noise and puff of smoke below? And how the ground is flatflatflatflat and then there is a body-shaped hole going straight down? That's kind of what the city looks like. Flat altiplano, then sudden dropoff into the city, which for some reason was built on incredibly steep mountainsides instead of the smooth plain. It's pretty crazy looking though, especially since I didn't realize it was so sudden when I was down there.

This is our buddy Giorgio right after they bought us a bit of dinner... agucharra, or COW HEART. Yes, that is corazòn del toro. With ajì, it's unbelievably delicious and deathly spicy. Without ajì, soooooo good. We went on to have a real dinner of one of the best burgers I've ever had, and it all was under $1.




"How do we get out of here?"
With red wine bought on the street, strawberry cookies, a Toblerone white chocolate, cut-up maps, a cigarette, and cuddled up in our intensely comfortable sleeping bags. This is an image of us trying to figure out what happened to us in Copacabana, how to leave, and getting ready for the next night of wildness.







And here we are right after we bought those plane tickets in La Paz! Note the incredible joy on our faces... This is also right before we

went and relaxed/rewarded ourselves at a local Bolivian spa. I like the trend we have... a week or so of really intense travelling days, followed by some sort of beautifying activity and then more intense days of traveling. It works well.

Twenty days. At least three destinations. Time is flying, time is crawling.
I still love the girl I'm with, which is one of the best blessings. How would it be for such a friendship to be ruined by too much time together? Horrible.
New travelling mates.
New accents. (So far, Bolivians are easiest to understand, then Peruvians, Colombians, Chileans, Argentinians, and Brazilians. Brazilian-tinted Spanish is probably the most gorgeous. But I'm always in love with Chileno,po!)
New everything, always!

And I'm still living life 'til it hurts... and loving every moment.