so, after many tears and a latin american send-off sierra and i have left lima. we went to the bus station in two cars because the entire family (of Moises, sierra's friend...where we were staying), including the older brother's girl friend had to see us off. sierra cried, moises cried, moises's mom cried....i did not, but then again i had only been there 48 hours. the bus ride was 8 hours long to nasca, which was fine because it was an argentine style bus...aka nice, with a bathroom, food and movies. once in nasca, we found lodging and a tour company, then slept.
we woke up really early this morning to take a flight over the nasca desert. first we watched a movie, then we boarded a 4 person plane to fly over about 15-20 designs in the desert. researchers know that the lines were constructed more than 1000 years ago, but dont know why. they are volcanic rock and have not moved because the rock is so warm the wind doesnt move it. the designs are mostly animals, but some trees, hands, and one that people call an astronaut. they were really interesting to see from above.
now, we're chilling in nasca, really boring town. a guy selling toothbrushes asked us for our email addresses, we told him we dont have email addresses....people in latin america can be so sketchy....actually it was more funny than sketchy. nasca has nothing to do, we've already walked the entire town. the main plaza has the designs from the lines as statues, parts of benches, and on the sidewalks...clearly this is a one-attraction town. thats all for now, its off to arequipa, which is way high up in the andes....9 hours on an overnight bus!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
dinner: chicken soup with boiled plantains
on saturday i boarded the boat. having no idea how long i would be on the boat, i bought 5 liters of water, cans of tuna and crackers. it was raining when i got to the port and the boat was absolutely insane. two guys helped me hang my hammock, but that a woman asked me if I could move my hammock next to hers because she was also travelling alone. the tricky thing is you really have to watch your stuff while the boat is still at the port. there are a million people on board: families of travelers, travelers, and people selling things. its noisy and chaotic and raining outside. you have to be careful of the people selling things, esp the children, becuase they will try to run off with your bags. so, i piled all of my stuff into my hammock, spread my raincoat on top of it and read for the few hours until we actually left (which was about 1.5 hours behind schedule). the first night we didnt really do much, except they blasted peruvian music from the jungle region. the trip wound up being three days and four nights, all of the food was included in the $25 per hammock price. the food was pretty bad. well, it was fine. except breakfast. i never even tried it. i think one morning was rice floating in milk. i gave my breakfast to the people around me who had tons of children. lunch was rice, chicken and some form of veggie. dinner every night was chicken soup with a boiled plantain floating around in it. dont boil bananas. its not worth it. theyre really bad.
the bathrooms on the boat were rather gross. the showers were above the toilets and constantly dripping when i tried to pee. the water was brown, not because of garbage dirt, but because of all of the vegetation...the water was water from the river. i took one shower because it was pretty pointless. the boat itself was made out of metal, which meant that it creaked and made horrible noises. we also made stops at 5 am two of the days, which meant there was no sleeping. even if we hadnt made stops, i was sharing a room with 150 peruvians, at least 30 of whom were under the age of ten. we all had hammocks, but people were all over the floor and always running and yelling.
i was the only gringa on the boat. it was actually kind of humerous. at first i told people that i live in argentina, then some of them started to catch on that i was an american. that meant that i had to spend about an hour telling a 9 year old boy the english word for every part of the boat....because i really know my boat parts and all. then i had two girls come up to me while i was in my hammock and just stare at me. that was all. just stare. i asked them whats up and all that. they just wanted to see a gringa. one of them had to touch me. they all wanted to know if i was pure gringa and if my family was gringa also. then they had to know why i wasnt married and why i dont have kids yet. the woman next to me wanted a picture of her 1 month old son with the gringuita. every time i would get up to go to the bathroom it was like a parade of just me. every man on the boat would watch my every move. i dont know if it was because i was white or because i was female....or both.
we got to pucallpa at 3 AM on wednesday, but i stayed on the boat until 6ish. at 4 they began to blast more music. same group. same songs. i think they only have one dvd in concert of this group. so i went into pucallpa, found a bus to lima and spent the next few hours walking around, using the internet, buying fruit, and water for the bus ride. the bus ride was 24 hours long. it was amazing though. you have to cross the mountains, which means you go up on the jungle side, with waterfalls everywhere and really beautiful vegetation and you down the desert side with cacti and mining towns. i really love the andes; theyre such beautiful mountains. the waterfalls were so beautiful and the scenery was generally georgous. the roads were sort of difficult in that we would go around a 90 degree curve on mud to swing onto a one lane bridge over a waterfall. i generally loved the bus ride except the part where we were decending towards lima. my left ear is still blocked from that. i got to lima and realized that even though the names are the same, i was not in the same part of the city as sierras friends house. they came to pick me up, i went to the apartment and had my first real shower in peru.
the bathrooms on the boat were rather gross. the showers were above the toilets and constantly dripping when i tried to pee. the water was brown, not because of garbage dirt, but because of all of the vegetation...the water was water from the river. i took one shower because it was pretty pointless. the boat itself was made out of metal, which meant that it creaked and made horrible noises. we also made stops at 5 am two of the days, which meant there was no sleeping. even if we hadnt made stops, i was sharing a room with 150 peruvians, at least 30 of whom were under the age of ten. we all had hammocks, but people were all over the floor and always running and yelling.
i was the only gringa on the boat. it was actually kind of humerous. at first i told people that i live in argentina, then some of them started to catch on that i was an american. that meant that i had to spend about an hour telling a 9 year old boy the english word for every part of the boat....because i really know my boat parts and all. then i had two girls come up to me while i was in my hammock and just stare at me. that was all. just stare. i asked them whats up and all that. they just wanted to see a gringa. one of them had to touch me. they all wanted to know if i was pure gringa and if my family was gringa also. then they had to know why i wasnt married and why i dont have kids yet. the woman next to me wanted a picture of her 1 month old son with the gringuita. every time i would get up to go to the bathroom it was like a parade of just me. every man on the boat would watch my every move. i dont know if it was because i was white or because i was female....or both.
we got to pucallpa at 3 AM on wednesday, but i stayed on the boat until 6ish. at 4 they began to blast more music. same group. same songs. i think they only have one dvd in concert of this group. so i went into pucallpa, found a bus to lima and spent the next few hours walking around, using the internet, buying fruit, and water for the bus ride. the bus ride was 24 hours long. it was amazing though. you have to cross the mountains, which means you go up on the jungle side, with waterfalls everywhere and really beautiful vegetation and you down the desert side with cacti and mining towns. i really love the andes; theyre such beautiful mountains. the waterfalls were so beautiful and the scenery was generally georgous. the roads were sort of difficult in that we would go around a 90 degree curve on mud to swing onto a one lane bridge over a waterfall. i generally loved the bus ride except the part where we were decending towards lima. my left ear is still blocked from that. i got to lima and realized that even though the names are the same, i was not in the same part of the city as sierras friends house. they came to pick me up, i went to the apartment and had my first real shower in peru.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
yes, i ate a worm.....when in rome....or the peruvian amazon
so, wednesday night i boarded a boat with a peruvian guide named israel and three argentines. we were on board for 8 hours until reaching this tiny town (at midnight). we slept in our hammocks inside mosquito nets and when we woke up we found out we were on this little river in the house of our guide´s cousin. we spent the morning just chilling. then we took a canoe (6 of us)for like 4 or 5 hours looking at birds and trees as we went. we found our campsite just as it was starting to rain. we got the hole thing set up and then it poured....it is after all the rain forrest. then the guides cooked us lunch/dinner, which was really yummy. from there we took a nap and then went on a night canoe ride....its dark at 6.30ish. i was so scared we were going to get lost in the lagoon...we crossed through trees to get to other lagoons....and there was no light at all. no moon. no stars...just our flashlights. we fould a caiman (kind of like an alligator) and the argentines held it...i just touched it. then we saw some toads and returned to our campsite, which was easier than i though. we saw the biggest toad i´ve ever seen (also the biggest toad in the amazon). that i held. then we slept. we woke up friday at 6am to go out on the river to bird-watch. we saw a bunch of different, really pretty birds then had breakfast then went on a walk through the jungle. it was there that i tried a little worm which tasted like coconut milk, i also drank squeazed tree bark which is meant to cure/treat some forms of cancer. i also drank water from a vine. we walked around up to our waists in water because it is the wet season here. then we took the canoe and went back towards the little town. on the way, we saw little monkeys. we also stopped at a jungle lodge...super expensive, to use real toilets....i felt luxurious. they even had toilet paper!! back in the town we ate dinner and went to sleep. then we woke up and walked around a little. the town was bigger than i thought.
the house was on stilts with standing water underneath it. half of one side had a full sized wall and the other half had a half wall. the only furniture was a table and two benches, along with a smaller table for kitchen items. there was a thatched roof over the house. the kitchen was behind on its own platform, also with standing water underneath it. the town has a little electricity, there are "street" lamps on the main walkway. there arent streets because there arent cars. we went to the bakery, the school, the jail and the church. we also walked by a lot of houses and saw some plants and stuff. we used the seeds of one plant to paint our arms and lips. then we watched a family drying yuca on a huge pan over a large flame. after eating breakfast, we took a 2.5 hour canoe ride to nauta, a town on the western side of the river and from there a 2 hour bus ride to iquitos.
the house was on stilts with standing water underneath it. half of one side had a full sized wall and the other half had a half wall. the only furniture was a table and two benches, along with a smaller table for kitchen items. there was a thatched roof over the house. the kitchen was behind on its own platform, also with standing water underneath it. the town has a little electricity, there are "street" lamps on the main walkway. there arent streets because there arent cars. we went to the bakery, the school, the jail and the church. we also walked by a lot of houses and saw some plants and stuff. we used the seeds of one plant to paint our arms and lips. then we watched a family drying yuca on a huge pan over a large flame. after eating breakfast, we took a 2.5 hour canoe ride to nauta, a town on the western side of the river and from there a 2 hour bus ride to iquitos.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
fried alligator with a side of texas
so i got to iquitos after a super boring 9 hours in lima´s airport. its a loud cute little city. at the airport, there was a muscial welcome. i met up with some argentines and we´re traveling together for a little. we went to dinner at this texas bbq place run by a guy from texas. the waitresses wear UT chearleading uniforms and there are orange and white longhorns all over the walls. the barstools were horse saddles. he gave us tourist info because he used to work in tourism here. then we ate there. i had fried alligator. yes, alligator. it kind of tasted like chicken. it came with fried banana and yuca which is a cousin of the potato. today i´m heading to the jungle for three nights. we went and bought hammocks at a market to have a place to sleep because we´re going to camp. everyone drives motorcycles here and little motor taxi things that are super cute...but noisy as hell. anyways i´m doing well and will be incomunicado for the next 10 days. i´m doing the jungle thing that taking a boat south to pucallpa then a bus to lima. i may not be showering anytime soon and here, its so humid i want to shower once an hour. so, bottom line, mosquitos not so bad, alligator yummy, jungle looking pretty damn cool, i´m doing well and starting to smell rather gross.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Winter/Summer??? break - January
Monday 1 January – My father, brother, Steve and I went to Chaiken’s all-day party. Basically its an entire day of eating and then a worst-gift exchange (where everyone brings their worst gift and there is a grab-bag of sorts. I received a tree-bark covered styrafoam owl, which I think was a Christmas ornament.
Tuesday 2 Jan – Another full day in NYC. Steve and I went to the TKTS line to try to get tickets to a show. Caroline came (I knew she was coming, but it was still fantastic to see her). Then we split up, Caroline and her friend from Bates went uptown, while Steve and I headed downtown. First we went to Chelsea to go gallery hopping. From there we walked down the West Side Highway to the Meat Packing District, where we walked by Pastis (site of Carrie’s brunch with Oliver, the Aussie shoe guy – Stanford being “green with envy”). From there we kept going downtown to Grenwich Village and stumbled upon Magnolia bakery (Miranda and Carrie have cupcakes here while Carrie ponders her crush on Aiden). We had to wait about 20 minutes for the cupcakes and we/I dropped ½ of mine while we were tasting it. We figured out that Carrie’s apartment stoop was around the corner from the bakery, so we had to go and take a picture of Steve there. Then, we went to Christopher Street and walked around a bit and then went to meet Caroline in Chinatown for dinner. Then the four of us took the subway uptown to see the Drowsy Chaperon on Broadway. The show was a musical in a comedy…it a young guy narrating the performance of his favorite old musical. It was really funny.
Wednesday 3 Jan – Yet another day in the city; this time my dad drove Steve and I into to Penn Station where Steve left and we picked up Caroline. Then we went uptown and had lunch at this adorable café called Louie’s. We realized that the café was one of the locations in the movie, You’ve Got Mail, which happened to be one of Caroline’s favorites. Then we went to a natural dog food store, which was weird. We walked through central park, stopping at the Belvadere Castle to see the view, and continuing on to the Met. We wandered around doing a kind of met-highlights tour because Caroline had never been there. We took the subway to the Lower East Side so Caroline could go to a Vegan shoe store. Next we went to Magnolia bakery and Carrie’s stoop so Caroline could see them. Finally we walked back to the Port Authority, which was more than 35 blocks, but extremely necessary for burning some of those cupcake calories.
Thursday 4 Jan – Caroline and I returned to the Upper west side to do a You’ve Got Mail tour. We walked to the storefront used as Shop Around the Corner. If there wasn’t a huge movie poster, we would not have even recognized it. Then we went to the 72nd St subway station area. We sat in the park that Meg Ryan sits in after going to a street fair and saw the Grey’s Papaya they have lunch at. Then we walked uptown to Zabars and H&H bagels. Zabars is insane; its full of specialty cheeses and really interesting foods. We had lunch at an Indian restaurant, which was yummy because I hadn’t had Indian food in a while. Then we walked some more to the 91st street garden in Riverside Park, which is the location of the final scene of the movie. Because it was January, the garden wasn’t really nice. We also went to Lalo’s, a café where Meg Ryan goes on the blind date. Then we walked back to port authority where I bumped into Ben from COPA. That was beyond weird because I wasn’t expecting it at all. I never really thought I’d see anyone from COPA for a while.
Friday 5 Jan – I drove Caroline to port authority so she could catch her bus to DC, then went home and packed for Detroit.
Saturday 6 Jan – Dad and I woke up super early to drive to Detroit. On the way we stopped in Ohio and Rachel called me to say good-bye. She was boarding her plane back to London for the rest of her time abroad. I think we talked for more than an hour and even though I didn’t get to see her this break, I will miss her. When we got to Detroit, my dad and I went to a black-tie award show, which was fun (the event was OK, but I got to dress up, which was the best part). Then my dad took me to dinner in Greektown, which is this two block region full of restaurants and nightlife.
Sunday 7 Jan – I dropped my dad off at COBO (where the auto show was). I went to the Detroit Institute of Art to see the Diego Rivera murals. I got there before it opened, but was puzzled to see a lot of people walking up to the museum. So I went to investigate and found that people were arriving for the Annie Leibowitz exhibition of photos of musicians. It was interesting, not the best photos I’ve seen, but I really liked some of them. The Diego Rivera murals were amazing to see in person. The series is really huge and impressive. The rest of the museum was strange. There was a Marc Rothko right next to a crucifixion scene and various juxtapositions like that. I later found out that this was because most of their collection was in storage due to renovations. From the museum, I went to try to find Mexicantown to have lunch, but didn’t want up eating there. Instead I went to a BBQ place for pulled pork. Then I went to the Edsel and Elenor Ford house in Grosse Point. The house was really nice, but the grounds were even better. Then I drove around a little bit on 8-mile road, but I don’t think it was near where Eminen lived. That night for dinner my dad and I ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant that may or may not support Hezbollah. (according to a PR friend of my dad’s the restaurant owner fled to Lebanon and his wife was jailed in the US for aiding a terrorist organization).
Monday 8 Jan – I went to the Henry Ford museum for the day. It’s a huge museum full of American history. There was a round home from the 40s, a bunch of cars including the presidential limos (and the one Kennedy was riding in when he was shot), trains, the Oscar Myer weinermobile, and the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot. I really enjoyed the museum. There were auto show press people walking around in their badges, including a European with a professional camera and scores of Japanese taking pictures of everything. When I left the museum, there was a stretch limo waiting outside (probably for the Japanese press people). Then I went to the hotel and finally mended my jeans from South America (they got rather destroyed after backpacking Patagonia in them). Then I met my dad at the Chrysler Firehouse, which is like a bar/club for the press to go to after their day at the auto show. It was fun because I got to see people I hadn’t seen in years like some who had worked for my dad when I was little. I also got to meet some more of my dad’s friends.
Tuesday 9 Jan – After dropping my dad at COBO, I went to Belle Isle and drove around and did the USAToday crossword. Then I tried to find this eastern market which wound up being rather sketchy and mostly closed. Also, I think most of the market was produce and meat, which I wasn’t going to buy anyway. From there I tried to find the Polish community, which has an art center. It was closed. So, I headed downtown to Greektown and parked the car. I took the people mover to the Renaissance Center (even though it was only 5 or so blocks away). The people mover was really cute/fun. You get to see a lot of the city from above (it’s an L) and all of the stations have mosaic tiling. I also went to the Guardian building which had a really interesting painted arched ceiling and metal gates resembling those usually found in gothic churches. Then I had lunch in Greektown so I could have a gyro. Finally I went back to the RenCen and took the tour. We went to the top, the 72nd floor, which is the highest point in Detroit. This gave us a great view of Windsor, Canada, all of Detroit and Belle Isle. After sitting in Starbucks to read, I went to Farmington Hills to meet my dad. Finally, we at dinner at this place called Culvers (burgers and ice cream) because they’re hiring my dad to do PR for a race car they’re sponsoring.
Wednesday 10 Jan – It was another museum day in Michigan. I dropped my dad off at Chrysler and went to The Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills. The museum was a history of the Chrysler including race cars and a sampling of cars and how the technology has changed over the years. There was a press event going on while I was there and I recognized some of the people. After asking the docents, they said the event was some international PR people (this is why I recognized them). Then I had lunch at Cosi, which was terrible because the honey mustard sauce caused a burning sensation in my nose. It was so spicy. Next I went to Meadowbrook Hall, the 88,000 square foot home of one of the Dodge brother’s widow. It was enormous and really opulent. The door knobs were all custom-made to fit with a theme in the room. For example: the game room had pool tables and chess boards, with pool sticks for hinges, while the son’s bedroom had airplanes for hinges and a car door knob. The grounds were also nice, but nothing compared to the Ford house. Then I went to the Cranbrook Academy Art Museum, which was small, but interesting. I picked up my dad and we drove to Pennsylvania.
Thursday 11 Jan – We woke up early and drove home.
Tuesday 2 Jan – Another full day in NYC. Steve and I went to the TKTS line to try to get tickets to a show. Caroline came (I knew she was coming, but it was still fantastic to see her). Then we split up, Caroline and her friend from Bates went uptown, while Steve and I headed downtown. First we went to Chelsea to go gallery hopping. From there we walked down the West Side Highway to the Meat Packing District, where we walked by Pastis (site of Carrie’s brunch with Oliver, the Aussie shoe guy – Stanford being “green with envy”). From there we kept going downtown to Grenwich Village and stumbled upon Magnolia bakery (Miranda and Carrie have cupcakes here while Carrie ponders her crush on Aiden). We had to wait about 20 minutes for the cupcakes and we/I dropped ½ of mine while we were tasting it. We figured out that Carrie’s apartment stoop was around the corner from the bakery, so we had to go and take a picture of Steve there. Then, we went to Christopher Street and walked around a bit and then went to meet Caroline in Chinatown for dinner. Then the four of us took the subway uptown to see the Drowsy Chaperon on Broadway. The show was a musical in a comedy…it a young guy narrating the performance of his favorite old musical. It was really funny.
Wednesday 3 Jan – Yet another day in the city; this time my dad drove Steve and I into to Penn Station where Steve left and we picked up Caroline. Then we went uptown and had lunch at this adorable café called Louie’s. We realized that the café was one of the locations in the movie, You’ve Got Mail, which happened to be one of Caroline’s favorites. Then we went to a natural dog food store, which was weird. We walked through central park, stopping at the Belvadere Castle to see the view, and continuing on to the Met. We wandered around doing a kind of met-highlights tour because Caroline had never been there. We took the subway to the Lower East Side so Caroline could go to a Vegan shoe store. Next we went to Magnolia bakery and Carrie’s stoop so Caroline could see them. Finally we walked back to the Port Authority, which was more than 35 blocks, but extremely necessary for burning some of those cupcake calories.
Thursday 4 Jan – Caroline and I returned to the Upper west side to do a You’ve Got Mail tour. We walked to the storefront used as Shop Around the Corner. If there wasn’t a huge movie poster, we would not have even recognized it. Then we went to the 72nd St subway station area. We sat in the park that Meg Ryan sits in after going to a street fair and saw the Grey’s Papaya they have lunch at. Then we walked uptown to Zabars and H&H bagels. Zabars is insane; its full of specialty cheeses and really interesting foods. We had lunch at an Indian restaurant, which was yummy because I hadn’t had Indian food in a while. Then we walked some more to the 91st street garden in Riverside Park, which is the location of the final scene of the movie. Because it was January, the garden wasn’t really nice. We also went to Lalo’s, a café where Meg Ryan goes on the blind date. Then we walked back to port authority where I bumped into Ben from COPA. That was beyond weird because I wasn’t expecting it at all. I never really thought I’d see anyone from COPA for a while.
Friday 5 Jan – I drove Caroline to port authority so she could catch her bus to DC, then went home and packed for Detroit.
Saturday 6 Jan – Dad and I woke up super early to drive to Detroit. On the way we stopped in Ohio and Rachel called me to say good-bye. She was boarding her plane back to London for the rest of her time abroad. I think we talked for more than an hour and even though I didn’t get to see her this break, I will miss her. When we got to Detroit, my dad and I went to a black-tie award show, which was fun (the event was OK, but I got to dress up, which was the best part). Then my dad took me to dinner in Greektown, which is this two block region full of restaurants and nightlife.
Sunday 7 Jan – I dropped my dad off at COBO (where the auto show was). I went to the Detroit Institute of Art to see the Diego Rivera murals. I got there before it opened, but was puzzled to see a lot of people walking up to the museum. So I went to investigate and found that people were arriving for the Annie Leibowitz exhibition of photos of musicians. It was interesting, not the best photos I’ve seen, but I really liked some of them. The Diego Rivera murals were amazing to see in person. The series is really huge and impressive. The rest of the museum was strange. There was a Marc Rothko right next to a crucifixion scene and various juxtapositions like that. I later found out that this was because most of their collection was in storage due to renovations. From the museum, I went to try to find Mexicantown to have lunch, but didn’t want up eating there. Instead I went to a BBQ place for pulled pork. Then I went to the Edsel and Elenor Ford house in Grosse Point. The house was really nice, but the grounds were even better. Then I drove around a little bit on 8-mile road, but I don’t think it was near where Eminen lived. That night for dinner my dad and I ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant that may or may not support Hezbollah. (according to a PR friend of my dad’s the restaurant owner fled to Lebanon and his wife was jailed in the US for aiding a terrorist organization).
Monday 8 Jan – I went to the Henry Ford museum for the day. It’s a huge museum full of American history. There was a round home from the 40s, a bunch of cars including the presidential limos (and the one Kennedy was riding in when he was shot), trains, the Oscar Myer weinermobile, and the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot. I really enjoyed the museum. There were auto show press people walking around in their badges, including a European with a professional camera and scores of Japanese taking pictures of everything. When I left the museum, there was a stretch limo waiting outside (probably for the Japanese press people). Then I went to the hotel and finally mended my jeans from South America (they got rather destroyed after backpacking Patagonia in them). Then I met my dad at the Chrysler Firehouse, which is like a bar/club for the press to go to after their day at the auto show. It was fun because I got to see people I hadn’t seen in years like some who had worked for my dad when I was little. I also got to meet some more of my dad’s friends.
Tuesday 9 Jan – After dropping my dad at COBO, I went to Belle Isle and drove around and did the USAToday crossword. Then I tried to find this eastern market which wound up being rather sketchy and mostly closed. Also, I think most of the market was produce and meat, which I wasn’t going to buy anyway. From there I tried to find the Polish community, which has an art center. It was closed. So, I headed downtown to Greektown and parked the car. I took the people mover to the Renaissance Center (even though it was only 5 or so blocks away). The people mover was really cute/fun. You get to see a lot of the city from above (it’s an L) and all of the stations have mosaic tiling. I also went to the Guardian building which had a really interesting painted arched ceiling and metal gates resembling those usually found in gothic churches. Then I had lunch in Greektown so I could have a gyro. Finally I went back to the RenCen and took the tour. We went to the top, the 72nd floor, which is the highest point in Detroit. This gave us a great view of Windsor, Canada, all of Detroit and Belle Isle. After sitting in Starbucks to read, I went to Farmington Hills to meet my dad. Finally, we at dinner at this place called Culvers (burgers and ice cream) because they’re hiring my dad to do PR for a race car they’re sponsoring.
Wednesday 10 Jan – It was another museum day in Michigan. I dropped my dad off at Chrysler and went to The Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills. The museum was a history of the Chrysler including race cars and a sampling of cars and how the technology has changed over the years. There was a press event going on while I was there and I recognized some of the people. After asking the docents, they said the event was some international PR people (this is why I recognized them). Then I had lunch at Cosi, which was terrible because the honey mustard sauce caused a burning sensation in my nose. It was so spicy. Next I went to Meadowbrook Hall, the 88,000 square foot home of one of the Dodge brother’s widow. It was enormous and really opulent. The door knobs were all custom-made to fit with a theme in the room. For example: the game room had pool tables and chess boards, with pool sticks for hinges, while the son’s bedroom had airplanes for hinges and a car door knob. The grounds were also nice, but nothing compared to the Ford house. Then I went to the Cranbrook Academy Art Museum, which was small, but interesting. I picked up my dad and we drove to Pennsylvania.
Thursday 11 Jan – We woke up early and drove home.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Winter/Summer??? break - December
Sunday 17 Dec – Channukah dinner with my family.
Tuesday 19Dec – I went to NYC to hang out with Jessica, one of my friends from Tufts. She was there staying with her dad. I found it really difficult to cross the street because of the lack of red-yellow-green traffic lights. Traffic lights in Argentina and like those in Europe which are designed for people who drive stick-shifts. We wandered around, had greasy Chinese noodles for lunch, saw the Rockefeller center tree, and went to Dylan’s Candy bar for jelly bellies.
Thursday 21 Dec – I went to the city with my parents to help them at the International Motor Press Asoc. lunch. I also wandered around a little going to Saks and St. Pats to look at the decorations. I went to Starbucks in OT with Nancy and we were saddened to find out it closed at 10PM. We wound up driving around the valley because there was literally nothing else to do.
Sunday 24 Dec – Christmas eve I went to the city with my parents, brother, and grandma. We went to B&H to look at cameras and then the Palm for dinner.
Monday 25 Dec – Christmas morning was uneventful because I didn’t want anything this year. There is nothing I can take back to South America with me because I am going back with just a backpack. It was nice to see my aunt and uncle for dinner at my grandfather’s house.
Tuesday 26 Dec – Thursday 28 Dec – non-stop season seven west wing. 22 episodes in less than 48 hours…stopping only to sleep and eat.
Friday 29 Dec – I went to lunch with Chelsea, Ronny and Grandma in Ridgewood and finally had French toast.
Saturday 30 Dec – My dad and I went to Stamford to pick Steve up from the train. It was so great to see him. We went to lunch with my mother at Blue Moon (Tex/Mex). Then Steve and Joey napped while I worked out.
Sunday 31 Dec – Steve and I took the ferry to NYC and then a bus to Lincoln center, where we walked around and went to central park. We watched the ice skaters there and then went through FAO Swartz and down 5th Ave to St. Patricks, and Saks to look at Christmas decorations. We walked by the tree at Rockefeller Center and went to Nintendo World, then Bryant Park to go ice skating, which was not fun. I discovered that I really don’t like ice skating. I was pretty scared most of the time. Steve loved it though. Afterwards, we tried to go see the ball drop, which meant we wound up walking to central park again to find out that the closest we could get was 57th and 7th (15 blocks north of the tiny little speck of a ball). We left, went to some apartment on the west side so Steve could say hi to a friend and then took the ferry back to NJ. We were eating dinner when the ball dropped.
Tuesday 19Dec – I went to NYC to hang out with Jessica, one of my friends from Tufts. She was there staying with her dad. I found it really difficult to cross the street because of the lack of red-yellow-green traffic lights. Traffic lights in Argentina and like those in Europe which are designed for people who drive stick-shifts. We wandered around, had greasy Chinese noodles for lunch, saw the Rockefeller center tree, and went to Dylan’s Candy bar for jelly bellies.
Thursday 21 Dec – I went to the city with my parents to help them at the International Motor Press Asoc. lunch. I also wandered around a little going to Saks and St. Pats to look at the decorations. I went to Starbucks in OT with Nancy and we were saddened to find out it closed at 10PM. We wound up driving around the valley because there was literally nothing else to do.
Sunday 24 Dec – Christmas eve I went to the city with my parents, brother, and grandma. We went to B&H to look at cameras and then the Palm for dinner.
Monday 25 Dec – Christmas morning was uneventful because I didn’t want anything this year. There is nothing I can take back to South America with me because I am going back with just a backpack. It was nice to see my aunt and uncle for dinner at my grandfather’s house.
Tuesday 26 Dec – Thursday 28 Dec – non-stop season seven west wing. 22 episodes in less than 48 hours…stopping only to sleep and eat.
Friday 29 Dec – I went to lunch with Chelsea, Ronny and Grandma in Ridgewood and finally had French toast.
Saturday 30 Dec – My dad and I went to Stamford to pick Steve up from the train. It was so great to see him. We went to lunch with my mother at Blue Moon (Tex/Mex). Then Steve and Joey napped while I worked out.
Sunday 31 Dec – Steve and I took the ferry to NYC and then a bus to Lincoln center, where we walked around and went to central park. We watched the ice skaters there and then went through FAO Swartz and down 5th Ave to St. Patricks, and Saks to look at Christmas decorations. We walked by the tree at Rockefeller Center and went to Nintendo World, then Bryant Park to go ice skating, which was not fun. I discovered that I really don’t like ice skating. I was pretty scared most of the time. Steve loved it though. Afterwards, we tried to go see the ball drop, which meant we wound up walking to central park again to find out that the closest we could get was 57th and 7th (15 blocks north of the tiny little speck of a ball). We left, went to some apartment on the west side so Steve could say hi to a friend and then took the ferry back to NJ. We were eating dinner when the ball dropped.
The Rest of Argentina
disclaimer: yea, its a little behind schedule, but here is the rest of semester 1 (also, there are no accents in this because i used my dad's computer and have no idea how to put them in....its a PC):
Saturday 25 November – I left the beautiful city of Ushuaia and headed to the airport, which is on a peninsula sticking out into the Beagle Channel. While at the airport, I bumped into Alicia, Pedro and Pilu, three Spaniards who had been on my Beagle Channel excursion days earlier. They were going to El Calafate and had to be in Chile the same day as me. We shared a cab to Calafate and I went to my hostel, which wasn’t that great. Alicia called my cell phone to tell me that the tour company at their hostel had organized a way for all of us to go to the glaciers, fitz roy and torres del paine while still making it to Chile in time. I ran over there to figure things out and while talking to the tour organizer managed to score myself a free hostelling international member ship for a year (costs between $15 and $25 US, already saved me money at Chilean hostels and the bus back to BsAs).
Sunday 26 November – We were picked up and taken to a boat where we took an all day tour on a Catamaran. We went and saw the several glaciers from the boat, but the icebergs were by far my favorite part. They were so blue and huge and different. The ice was textured and really beautiful. From there we went to a bay and docked and had lunch while looking at the icebergs and more glaciers. It was really really cool!
Monday 27 November – the tour company came to pick me up, but there was already one person on the bus: Eitan! The same Israeli guy who though I was Israeli in Buenos Aires and then showed up at my hostel in Ushuaia. It was great to see a familiar face. Perito Moreno is huge. Its absolutely amazing. We took a boat to get closer to it and we watched in break and fall. Its one of the few glaciers that isn’t in danger of receding: it replenishes itself every year. We hiked around the hills overlooking the glacier and then went to the look-out area and had lunch. It was really cold and raining, which kind of sucked, so we went and sat on the bus and got back to town earlier than planned. That afternoon, the Spaniards and I took a bus up Ruta 40 to El Chalten. Ruta 40 is an unpaved “highway,” aka the only inter-city road, up the western park of Patagonia. It winds around hills and mountains and had some really nice views. We got to El Chalten and found our hostel and went to sleep.
Tuesday 28 November – We took a mini-bus thing down the road to a spot where it would be easier to climb to the Fitz Roy look-out area. From there it was two hours to the base of the climb for the look-out, which is called Laguna Los Tres (the three lake). At that point we had to cross a river on a one-person-only bridge and start a steep uphill climb. At most points the rocks were like stair steps and we had to figure out the easiest way around the large steps or large rocks. My asthma was bothered a little by the climb. We got to the top and Fitz Roy was cloud-covered, but the view of the valley below was amazing. We couldn’t stay long at the top because we didn’t want to miss the bus back to Calafate. The way down was actually harder than going up (but better for my breathing). This is because all of the little rocks/gravel move as you step down and you have to work hard to stop yourself from going to fast and falling. Once we got to the bottom, we turned around and there was Fitz Roy….no more clouds! It was kind of upsetting that the clouds left when we left, but it was still really beautiful from below. We got back to town with about an hour before we needed to leave for El Calafate, so we went to a café where I had a lemon trout tostada (warm sandwich of trout in lemon juice). I slept the entire 4-hour gravel drive back to El Calafate.
Wednesday 29 November – We woke up at 5 AM to get a 5:45 bus to Chile. I slept the entire way to the border, three hours later. Leaving Argentina and entering Chile was relatively painless. We got near Torres del Paine and saw some really beautiful and colorful lakes. We got up close with some guanacos (a cousin of the llama). Torres del Paine was beautiful, but somewhat disappointing because the weather was terrible and we couldn’t see the torres, we saw the cuernos (horns) with some clouds, but the torres were completely covered (I later talked to some people who spent several days there and never saw the torres – that made me feel better). The weather was absolute shit. It was terrible: rain and so windy we could barely walk or stand. After debating whether or not to stay a night in Torres, I left for Puerto Natales where we found a HI hostel and slept in a real bed (I would have had to camp in torres). In Puerto Natales, I met three people who were going to be on the Navimag ferry with me the next day.
Thursday 30 Nov – I spent the day wandering Puerto Natales, which for a travelers’ town, where people are going to/from Torres del Paine or Navimag, was not such a bad place. I actually really liked it because it had a personality. On my walk, I found a guy going door-to-door selling fish out of a cooler in the back of his pick-up. He would open the cooler, pluck out a dead fish, put it in a plastic bag and knock his client’s door. I also went and bought grapefruit to bring with me on the boat. One of the differences between Chile and Argentina is that while both have verdulerias (fruit/veg stores), the produce in Chile is much larger and four of the same kind of verduleria in one city block can survive without a problem. Chileans actually eat their vegetables, which Argentines are more meat and carbohaulics. That afternoon I met up with the people who were going to be on the boat with me and we walked around and used the internet a bit. They were: Sammi, an Aussie (27) who had been living in England, Siobhan, Sammi’s Irish friend with whom she was traveling around the world, and Chad, a 32-year-old Brit who I swore couldn’t be any older that 22….so immature. They were loud and fun, we all had different English-speaking accents, which was interesting. We boarded the boat and went to the first night meeting.
Friday 1 Dec – The PA system woke us up at 7AM to tell us we were passing through the narrowest point of our journey. It was interesting (not really) and mostly just freezing cold and windy. Being a boat that far south is very very very cold and super windy…aka not fun to be outside especially that early in the morning. Then we went inside and had breakfast which was amazingly Americanized: there were scrambled eggs!!! I was super excited about that because in Argentina and Chile there are no eggs at breakfast time. We began the three-day eating adventure. The first day it wasn’t so boring because I was very into reading my book (Boquitas Pintadas by Manuel Puig) and keeping a journal. At night I watched a Chilean movie about the Allende years.
Saturday 2 Dec – We were again woken up by the PA system, but this time at 6:30 AM, to let us know we were near Puerto Eden. We took small boats (with about 20 people each) to the settlement, which houses about 2,000 people. Their land has walkways around it. It was nice to walk around a bit, even though it was chilly. Really the entire reason I went was to walk. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing (which it wasn’t), I just wanted the exercise. Then we went back to the boat and had breakfast. After breakfast, I went up and down the stairs 20 times (it was a three story boat) because I couldn’t sit any longer. Saturday was “seasickness day.” Siobhan had bought medicine in Puerto Natales, which turned out to be glorified sleeping pills (I am told that is what most seasickness meds are). I took the pills at 2 PM and by 5 PM was down in my bunk sleeping. Robin woke me at 8ish for dinner, which I ate and then went back to sleep until 7:30 the next morning. All I felt was that it was hard to walk around on the boat when I went up to dinner and back down. I didn’t get sick at all.
Sunday 3 Dec – Saturday it was finally warm enough to go outside and walk around the boat, which I did for ½ hour. We watched some documentaries and movies and played a lot of card games. That night was a bingo party in the pub. It was also warm enough to go outside and watch the sunset and see the mountains. During the bingo game there were trivia questions. I was the only person to name three Chilean authors and one book by one author. My answers: Pablo Neruda, Isabel Allende, and Luis Sepulveda and his book Mundo del fin del mundo, which I was reading at the time. I won a bottle of wine and wildlife stickers. We drank the wine on the boat because there was no way I was carry a glass bottle around in my backpack.
Monday 4 Dec – We were already in Puerto Montt when I woke up. I had breakfast and then all of us young backpackers walked to the bus station. I opted to take the cheapest bus to Castro, Chiloe, which wound up being a local bus which went to the local terminal instead of the tourist terminal. This meant that I stayed at a hospedaje (someone’s home with one room converted into a guest room) in the cheaper part of the city. I went and wandered around Castro and bumped into three Germans and a French girl (all from Navimag) at a market. We ate lunch, curanto, a seafood mixture which wasn’t that good…well, it was fine, but lacked flavor of any kind. Then we walked around Castro and found the palafitos (houses built on stilts). That night I ate at my hostel and went to sleep.
Tuesday 5 Dec – I woke up early and took a bus to Dalcahue where I saw the church and the cute tiny town. Then I took a ferry across the the Quinchao island, where I hitchhiked to the Aacho to see that church and town. Then I took a little bus to Curaco de Velez and walked around. From there I went back to the ferry and had lunch in Dalcauhue. My lunch was called a complete which consisted of: a bun, hotdog, pico de gallo, sourkraut, smeared avocado, mayo, ketchup, mustard, and aji (spicy sauce). This elaborately prepared snack only cost $1US. Then I tried to get to another town more north of Dalcahue, but was unsuccessful, so I just went back to Castro and walked some more. That night our navimag group had a pot-luck dinner. We had a huge salad (made from our huge Chilean veggies), empanadas, milcao (fried patties of mashed potatoes filled with pork), grapes and a variety of crackers and cake. It was really fun because they were such nice people and we talked about traveling and stuff like that.
Wednesday 6 Dec- I left Castro at 6:50 AM and got to Valdivia at 2ish. The bus ride was tedious because I sat next to this annoying Chilean guy whom I could not understand at all because he didn’t open his mouth wide enough when he spoke. I had to wait almost three hours in Valdivia because the other bus was delayed. When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find Robin (an Irish guy who I was friends with on navimag) and a bunch of backpackers…I felt like I was back in that world after a weird two day hiatus. The best part about Robin being there was that he wanted to climb the volcano and he knew where to find Sammi, Siobhan and Chad, which we did and we stayed at their hostel. They had just climbed the volcano and were full of advice, and Chad fed lme dinner. They helped us book the volcano and then Robin and I went food shopping at this mini-market. The food store turned out to be a total disaster. Robin tried to buy a roast chicken which ended with an entire roast spit (an four chickens) in his arms and me having to translate to the guy at the store that it was an accident and Robin only wanted one chicken. Then the power went out while I was looking at vegetables. It took a few minutes for them to restore power to the market and we paid and left. We went out with Sammi, Siobhan and Chad to celebrate our last night together.
Thursday 7 Dec – Volcano day! Robin and I were very prompt, arriving before the tour company. We took a bus until we were above the clouds. Our group was comprised of three Israeli girls (our age, but wound up being the worst climbers and most whiny), a Scottish couple and an older couple (one who turned back) Then we went on to the mountain. Even though we were one of the first groups to the mountain, we were the last group to reach the very cold and windy top. The climb took us about 5 hours (4 of which were us moving and 1 was breaks, we took several). The problem was the Israeli girls kept stopping and resting as we were climbing. At the top we looked into the mouth of the volcano, but couldn’t see anything like lava. We did, however, get a lungful of sulfur, which was delightful. By far the best part of the day was getting down the mountain. We strapped black diaper-like cloth contraptions onto ourselves and slid down the mountain. It was so much fun, kind of like a big water slide except you can keep going as long as the slide lasts and only have an ice ax to stop you. We didn’t get back to town until 5PMish and all of our stuff was soaking wet because water entered our backpacks while we were sliding down. We were also generally wet and muddy (aka absolutely filthy). We got to the hostel in time to say goodbye to the rest of the group as they took a bus to Santiago. Then I went and got the last ticket for the bus to Argentina the next day. Also that night, I went to the grocery store which took more than an hour because I couldn’t find things and just didn’t know what I wanted to buy. I was so tired that I kept walking in circles, really lost and confused. Both Robin and I went to bed at 10:30 that night because we were beyond tired after all of that climbing.
Friday 8 Dec – I woke up early and made eggs for breakfast because I wanted to have something substantial on the bus (rather than just crackers). The ride to Argentina was full of Israeli backpackers, but I was seated next to a Canadian photography nut who had been all over the world, literally. The border crossing was right next to a volcano, which was cool. I had no problem leaving Chile, but entering Argentina, the immigration officials had to “decide how much time to give me” on my visa. A side-note, my visa is a year-long student visa. Its very simple, I entered on 18 July 2006 and need to leave less than one year later. This isn’t like the 5 or 6 month visa where actual math may be involved. This is one year. One year is not difficult, however they like to screw it up because the first immigration official didn’t give me an exit date. She wrote in 1 year. The next one (return form Uruguay) wrote 17 July 2007, next in Tierra del Fuego the guy wrote 18 July 2007 (one year and one day), and this time the guy had no clue what to do. My passport was then moved to the bottom of the pile to be dealt with last. The bus ride took longer than we were told, which was to be expected. We arrived in San Martin de los Andes as the last bus was leaving to Bariloche. I called the hostel there and found out that it was full, which meant I really had to get on the bus. The problem wasn’t a lack of seats, it was that the ticket sales guy didn’t want to hold the bus up. Luckily my Spanish was good enough to get really pissed off at this guy and I had the cash to pay for my ticket and for two Scottish women (who paid me in American money). The three of us and the Canadian guy were only allowed on the bus after the driver okayed it. Also, by luck, we wound up on the bus that went by all of the lakes in the seven lakes region, which was a really beautiful bus ride as the sun was setting. Gilda’s cousin, Papi, picked me up at the bus terminal and drove me to his house, where they served me dinner and I spent the night.
Saturday 9 Dec – I was not able to stay longer at their house because they had family coming to visit. It ended up being a good thing because there wasn’t really much for me to do there except use the internet and they lived outside the town by a fair amount. I went to a hostel where I got the second-to-last bed. I left my stuff and wandered Bariloche a little bit…the town was cute, but super touristy. I had trout for lunch and tried some of their chocolates. I also went food shopping and then back to the hostel, where I met a bunch of people, include a girl who was raised in the next town in New Jersey. We went to the same high school district but different school. We also were in the same Hebrew school class (I only went for one year).
Sunday 10 Dec – Kate, the girl from NJ, three guys (from Arizona, Holland, and Australia) and I went to climb this mountain to Refugio Frey. We took a bus to get to the start of the hike, which was actually a ski resort and began our climb. It took about four hours to get to the top, which was totally worth it. Near the top we had to cross a snow-covered waterfall (which wasn’t so snow-covered on the way back down). At the top there were a lot of people hanging out and camping. For the first time I encountered (and used one) squatters (toilets which are basically just holes in the ground and outlines for your feet). Then we hiked back down, which wasn’t that difficult, but we were really tired and these huge mosquitoes were attacking me. By the time we reached the bottom we were exhausted and still had to walk 1 km to get to the road where the buses left from. All-in-all, we walked/hiked about 22 km (13 miles). After we got off the bus in the center of town, we went for ice cream which is supposedly the best in Argentina…it was good, but you can get ice cream like it in BsAs. After dessert, we had $5 peso pasta from this take-out place.
Monday 11 Dec – I slept late and then went and did the Circuito Chico (little circuit), a path/road near the lakes. I didn’t do all of it, just some paths through the woods, which were nice, but I had already seen a lot of the lakes from my bus ride three days earlier. The walk was super easy, especially after the crazy hiking the day before. I got a little lost (even though I had a map) because one part of the trails were not on the maps….however I didn’t really get lost because I took 10 more steps and found a beach with people and a road. On my walk back, I was unsuccessful hitchhiking, so took a bus to get to cerro catedral, where I walked uphill for 30 minutes to see the lakes from above. Then I went back to the hostel, had dinner and went to bed.
Tuesday 13 Dec – I woke up and walked around town a lot, in preparation for my 24-hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. Then I went and got on the bus. It was an average bus ride, except that I didn’t think we were getting dinner, so I took a Tylonol PM at 11 and they started serving at 11:05….it was an interesting meal of me struggling to keep my eyes open.
Wednesday 13 Dec – I got to my apartment at noonish and was relieved to find it empty (I didn’t want to have to describe my trip before showering). My host mom was on her way to COPA, so I went with her and organized my photos/used the internet.
Thursday 14 Dec – I walked around Palermo to the rose gardens with my friends. The gardens were really pretty, even though they were right on the road and kind of noisy. Then we went and saw Children of Men at the movie theater.
Friday 15 Dec – I wandered around during the morning and then went to help Amy pack. She was mostly packed and very stressed. Sierra and I took a huge bag of stuff Amy couldn’t fit in her bags to Sierra’s house. Then Meagan and I helped Sierra pack nda then they left. I walked back to my apartment and showed, then went to the airport and sat in a lot of traffic on the way. At the airport, there were a million lines to wait on: pre-check-in security questions (has your luggage been unattended at any time?), check-in, airport tax, security/metal detector, immigration, pre-boarding security questions (has your hand luggage been unattended at any time?), hand-luggage hand-search (for liquids). I got on the plane, ate bad airplane food and went to sleep.
Saturday 16 Dec – We landed at 5 minutes before 6 AM. My mother didn’t cry, which was kind of weird. My dad took us home and grandma came with bagels and lox for lunch. I had dinner at my grandfather’s house.
Saturday 25 November – I left the beautiful city of Ushuaia and headed to the airport, which is on a peninsula sticking out into the Beagle Channel. While at the airport, I bumped into Alicia, Pedro and Pilu, three Spaniards who had been on my Beagle Channel excursion days earlier. They were going to El Calafate and had to be in Chile the same day as me. We shared a cab to Calafate and I went to my hostel, which wasn’t that great. Alicia called my cell phone to tell me that the tour company at their hostel had organized a way for all of us to go to the glaciers, fitz roy and torres del paine while still making it to Chile in time. I ran over there to figure things out and while talking to the tour organizer managed to score myself a free hostelling international member ship for a year (costs between $15 and $25 US, already saved me money at Chilean hostels and the bus back to BsAs).
Sunday 26 November – We were picked up and taken to a boat where we took an all day tour on a Catamaran. We went and saw the several glaciers from the boat, but the icebergs were by far my favorite part. They were so blue and huge and different. The ice was textured and really beautiful. From there we went to a bay and docked and had lunch while looking at the icebergs and more glaciers. It was really really cool!
Monday 27 November – the tour company came to pick me up, but there was already one person on the bus: Eitan! The same Israeli guy who though I was Israeli in Buenos Aires and then showed up at my hostel in Ushuaia. It was great to see a familiar face. Perito Moreno is huge. Its absolutely amazing. We took a boat to get closer to it and we watched in break and fall. Its one of the few glaciers that isn’t in danger of receding: it replenishes itself every year. We hiked around the hills overlooking the glacier and then went to the look-out area and had lunch. It was really cold and raining, which kind of sucked, so we went and sat on the bus and got back to town earlier than planned. That afternoon, the Spaniards and I took a bus up Ruta 40 to El Chalten. Ruta 40 is an unpaved “highway,” aka the only inter-city road, up the western park of Patagonia. It winds around hills and mountains and had some really nice views. We got to El Chalten and found our hostel and went to sleep.
Tuesday 28 November – We took a mini-bus thing down the road to a spot where it would be easier to climb to the Fitz Roy look-out area. From there it was two hours to the base of the climb for the look-out, which is called Laguna Los Tres (the three lake). At that point we had to cross a river on a one-person-only bridge and start a steep uphill climb. At most points the rocks were like stair steps and we had to figure out the easiest way around the large steps or large rocks. My asthma was bothered a little by the climb. We got to the top and Fitz Roy was cloud-covered, but the view of the valley below was amazing. We couldn’t stay long at the top because we didn’t want to miss the bus back to Calafate. The way down was actually harder than going up (but better for my breathing). This is because all of the little rocks/gravel move as you step down and you have to work hard to stop yourself from going to fast and falling. Once we got to the bottom, we turned around and there was Fitz Roy….no more clouds! It was kind of upsetting that the clouds left when we left, but it was still really beautiful from below. We got back to town with about an hour before we needed to leave for El Calafate, so we went to a café where I had a lemon trout tostada (warm sandwich of trout in lemon juice). I slept the entire 4-hour gravel drive back to El Calafate.
Wednesday 29 November – We woke up at 5 AM to get a 5:45 bus to Chile. I slept the entire way to the border, three hours later. Leaving Argentina and entering Chile was relatively painless. We got near Torres del Paine and saw some really beautiful and colorful lakes. We got up close with some guanacos (a cousin of the llama). Torres del Paine was beautiful, but somewhat disappointing because the weather was terrible and we couldn’t see the torres, we saw the cuernos (horns) with some clouds, but the torres were completely covered (I later talked to some people who spent several days there and never saw the torres – that made me feel better). The weather was absolute shit. It was terrible: rain and so windy we could barely walk or stand. After debating whether or not to stay a night in Torres, I left for Puerto Natales where we found a HI hostel and slept in a real bed (I would have had to camp in torres). In Puerto Natales, I met three people who were going to be on the Navimag ferry with me the next day.
Thursday 30 Nov – I spent the day wandering Puerto Natales, which for a travelers’ town, where people are going to/from Torres del Paine or Navimag, was not such a bad place. I actually really liked it because it had a personality. On my walk, I found a guy going door-to-door selling fish out of a cooler in the back of his pick-up. He would open the cooler, pluck out a dead fish, put it in a plastic bag and knock his client’s door. I also went and bought grapefruit to bring with me on the boat. One of the differences between Chile and Argentina is that while both have verdulerias (fruit/veg stores), the produce in Chile is much larger and four of the same kind of verduleria in one city block can survive without a problem. Chileans actually eat their vegetables, which Argentines are more meat and carbohaulics. That afternoon I met up with the people who were going to be on the boat with me and we walked around and used the internet a bit. They were: Sammi, an Aussie (27) who had been living in England, Siobhan, Sammi’s Irish friend with whom she was traveling around the world, and Chad, a 32-year-old Brit who I swore couldn’t be any older that 22….so immature. They were loud and fun, we all had different English-speaking accents, which was interesting. We boarded the boat and went to the first night meeting.
Friday 1 Dec – The PA system woke us up at 7AM to tell us we were passing through the narrowest point of our journey. It was interesting (not really) and mostly just freezing cold and windy. Being a boat that far south is very very very cold and super windy…aka not fun to be outside especially that early in the morning. Then we went inside and had breakfast which was amazingly Americanized: there were scrambled eggs!!! I was super excited about that because in Argentina and Chile there are no eggs at breakfast time. We began the three-day eating adventure. The first day it wasn’t so boring because I was very into reading my book (Boquitas Pintadas by Manuel Puig) and keeping a journal. At night I watched a Chilean movie about the Allende years.
Saturday 2 Dec – We were again woken up by the PA system, but this time at 6:30 AM, to let us know we were near Puerto Eden. We took small boats (with about 20 people each) to the settlement, which houses about 2,000 people. Their land has walkways around it. It was nice to walk around a bit, even though it was chilly. Really the entire reason I went was to walk. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing (which it wasn’t), I just wanted the exercise. Then we went back to the boat and had breakfast. After breakfast, I went up and down the stairs 20 times (it was a three story boat) because I couldn’t sit any longer. Saturday was “seasickness day.” Siobhan had bought medicine in Puerto Natales, which turned out to be glorified sleeping pills (I am told that is what most seasickness meds are). I took the pills at 2 PM and by 5 PM was down in my bunk sleeping. Robin woke me at 8ish for dinner, which I ate and then went back to sleep until 7:30 the next morning. All I felt was that it was hard to walk around on the boat when I went up to dinner and back down. I didn’t get sick at all.
Sunday 3 Dec – Saturday it was finally warm enough to go outside and walk around the boat, which I did for ½ hour. We watched some documentaries and movies and played a lot of card games. That night was a bingo party in the pub. It was also warm enough to go outside and watch the sunset and see the mountains. During the bingo game there were trivia questions. I was the only person to name three Chilean authors and one book by one author. My answers: Pablo Neruda, Isabel Allende, and Luis Sepulveda and his book Mundo del fin del mundo, which I was reading at the time. I won a bottle of wine and wildlife stickers. We drank the wine on the boat because there was no way I was carry a glass bottle around in my backpack.
Monday 4 Dec – We were already in Puerto Montt when I woke up. I had breakfast and then all of us young backpackers walked to the bus station. I opted to take the cheapest bus to Castro, Chiloe, which wound up being a local bus which went to the local terminal instead of the tourist terminal. This meant that I stayed at a hospedaje (someone’s home with one room converted into a guest room) in the cheaper part of the city. I went and wandered around Castro and bumped into three Germans and a French girl (all from Navimag) at a market. We ate lunch, curanto, a seafood mixture which wasn’t that good…well, it was fine, but lacked flavor of any kind. Then we walked around Castro and found the palafitos (houses built on stilts). That night I ate at my hostel and went to sleep.
Tuesday 5 Dec – I woke up early and took a bus to Dalcahue where I saw the church and the cute tiny town. Then I took a ferry across the the Quinchao island, where I hitchhiked to the Aacho to see that church and town. Then I took a little bus to Curaco de Velez and walked around. From there I went back to the ferry and had lunch in Dalcauhue. My lunch was called a complete which consisted of: a bun, hotdog, pico de gallo, sourkraut, smeared avocado, mayo, ketchup, mustard, and aji (spicy sauce). This elaborately prepared snack only cost $1US. Then I tried to get to another town more north of Dalcahue, but was unsuccessful, so I just went back to Castro and walked some more. That night our navimag group had a pot-luck dinner. We had a huge salad (made from our huge Chilean veggies), empanadas, milcao (fried patties of mashed potatoes filled with pork), grapes and a variety of crackers and cake. It was really fun because they were such nice people and we talked about traveling and stuff like that.
Wednesday 6 Dec- I left Castro at 6:50 AM and got to Valdivia at 2ish. The bus ride was tedious because I sat next to this annoying Chilean guy whom I could not understand at all because he didn’t open his mouth wide enough when he spoke. I had to wait almost three hours in Valdivia because the other bus was delayed. When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find Robin (an Irish guy who I was friends with on navimag) and a bunch of backpackers…I felt like I was back in that world after a weird two day hiatus. The best part about Robin being there was that he wanted to climb the volcano and he knew where to find Sammi, Siobhan and Chad, which we did and we stayed at their hostel. They had just climbed the volcano and were full of advice, and Chad fed lme dinner. They helped us book the volcano and then Robin and I went food shopping at this mini-market. The food store turned out to be a total disaster. Robin tried to buy a roast chicken which ended with an entire roast spit (an four chickens) in his arms and me having to translate to the guy at the store that it was an accident and Robin only wanted one chicken. Then the power went out while I was looking at vegetables. It took a few minutes for them to restore power to the market and we paid and left. We went out with Sammi, Siobhan and Chad to celebrate our last night together.
Thursday 7 Dec – Volcano day! Robin and I were very prompt, arriving before the tour company. We took a bus until we were above the clouds. Our group was comprised of three Israeli girls (our age, but wound up being the worst climbers and most whiny), a Scottish couple and an older couple (one who turned back) Then we went on to the mountain. Even though we were one of the first groups to the mountain, we were the last group to reach the very cold and windy top. The climb took us about 5 hours (4 of which were us moving and 1 was breaks, we took several). The problem was the Israeli girls kept stopping and resting as we were climbing. At the top we looked into the mouth of the volcano, but couldn’t see anything like lava. We did, however, get a lungful of sulfur, which was delightful. By far the best part of the day was getting down the mountain. We strapped black diaper-like cloth contraptions onto ourselves and slid down the mountain. It was so much fun, kind of like a big water slide except you can keep going as long as the slide lasts and only have an ice ax to stop you. We didn’t get back to town until 5PMish and all of our stuff was soaking wet because water entered our backpacks while we were sliding down. We were also generally wet and muddy (aka absolutely filthy). We got to the hostel in time to say goodbye to the rest of the group as they took a bus to Santiago. Then I went and got the last ticket for the bus to Argentina the next day. Also that night, I went to the grocery store which took more than an hour because I couldn’t find things and just didn’t know what I wanted to buy. I was so tired that I kept walking in circles, really lost and confused. Both Robin and I went to bed at 10:30 that night because we were beyond tired after all of that climbing.
Friday 8 Dec – I woke up early and made eggs for breakfast because I wanted to have something substantial on the bus (rather than just crackers). The ride to Argentina was full of Israeli backpackers, but I was seated next to a Canadian photography nut who had been all over the world, literally. The border crossing was right next to a volcano, which was cool. I had no problem leaving Chile, but entering Argentina, the immigration officials had to “decide how much time to give me” on my visa. A side-note, my visa is a year-long student visa. Its very simple, I entered on 18 July 2006 and need to leave less than one year later. This isn’t like the 5 or 6 month visa where actual math may be involved. This is one year. One year is not difficult, however they like to screw it up because the first immigration official didn’t give me an exit date. She wrote in 1 year. The next one (return form Uruguay) wrote 17 July 2007, next in Tierra del Fuego the guy wrote 18 July 2007 (one year and one day), and this time the guy had no clue what to do. My passport was then moved to the bottom of the pile to be dealt with last. The bus ride took longer than we were told, which was to be expected. We arrived in San Martin de los Andes as the last bus was leaving to Bariloche. I called the hostel there and found out that it was full, which meant I really had to get on the bus. The problem wasn’t a lack of seats, it was that the ticket sales guy didn’t want to hold the bus up. Luckily my Spanish was good enough to get really pissed off at this guy and I had the cash to pay for my ticket and for two Scottish women (who paid me in American money). The three of us and the Canadian guy were only allowed on the bus after the driver okayed it. Also, by luck, we wound up on the bus that went by all of the lakes in the seven lakes region, which was a really beautiful bus ride as the sun was setting. Gilda’s cousin, Papi, picked me up at the bus terminal and drove me to his house, where they served me dinner and I spent the night.
Saturday 9 Dec – I was not able to stay longer at their house because they had family coming to visit. It ended up being a good thing because there wasn’t really much for me to do there except use the internet and they lived outside the town by a fair amount. I went to a hostel where I got the second-to-last bed. I left my stuff and wandered Bariloche a little bit…the town was cute, but super touristy. I had trout for lunch and tried some of their chocolates. I also went food shopping and then back to the hostel, where I met a bunch of people, include a girl who was raised in the next town in New Jersey. We went to the same high school district but different school. We also were in the same Hebrew school class (I only went for one year).
Sunday 10 Dec – Kate, the girl from NJ, three guys (from Arizona, Holland, and Australia) and I went to climb this mountain to Refugio Frey. We took a bus to get to the start of the hike, which was actually a ski resort and began our climb. It took about four hours to get to the top, which was totally worth it. Near the top we had to cross a snow-covered waterfall (which wasn’t so snow-covered on the way back down). At the top there were a lot of people hanging out and camping. For the first time I encountered (and used one) squatters (toilets which are basically just holes in the ground and outlines for your feet). Then we hiked back down, which wasn’t that difficult, but we were really tired and these huge mosquitoes were attacking me. By the time we reached the bottom we were exhausted and still had to walk 1 km to get to the road where the buses left from. All-in-all, we walked/hiked about 22 km (13 miles). After we got off the bus in the center of town, we went for ice cream which is supposedly the best in Argentina…it was good, but you can get ice cream like it in BsAs. After dessert, we had $5 peso pasta from this take-out place.
Monday 11 Dec – I slept late and then went and did the Circuito Chico (little circuit), a path/road near the lakes. I didn’t do all of it, just some paths through the woods, which were nice, but I had already seen a lot of the lakes from my bus ride three days earlier. The walk was super easy, especially after the crazy hiking the day before. I got a little lost (even though I had a map) because one part of the trails were not on the maps….however I didn’t really get lost because I took 10 more steps and found a beach with people and a road. On my walk back, I was unsuccessful hitchhiking, so took a bus to get to cerro catedral, where I walked uphill for 30 minutes to see the lakes from above. Then I went back to the hostel, had dinner and went to bed.
Tuesday 13 Dec – I woke up and walked around town a lot, in preparation for my 24-hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. Then I went and got on the bus. It was an average bus ride, except that I didn’t think we were getting dinner, so I took a Tylonol PM at 11 and they started serving at 11:05….it was an interesting meal of me struggling to keep my eyes open.
Wednesday 13 Dec – I got to my apartment at noonish and was relieved to find it empty (I didn’t want to have to describe my trip before showering). My host mom was on her way to COPA, so I went with her and organized my photos/used the internet.
Thursday 14 Dec – I walked around Palermo to the rose gardens with my friends. The gardens were really pretty, even though they were right on the road and kind of noisy. Then we went and saw Children of Men at the movie theater.
Friday 15 Dec – I wandered around during the morning and then went to help Amy pack. She was mostly packed and very stressed. Sierra and I took a huge bag of stuff Amy couldn’t fit in her bags to Sierra’s house. Then Meagan and I helped Sierra pack nda then they left. I walked back to my apartment and showed, then went to the airport and sat in a lot of traffic on the way. At the airport, there were a million lines to wait on: pre-check-in security questions (has your luggage been unattended at any time?), check-in, airport tax, security/metal detector, immigration, pre-boarding security questions (has your hand luggage been unattended at any time?), hand-luggage hand-search (for liquids). I got on the plane, ate bad airplane food and went to sleep.
Saturday 16 Dec – We landed at 5 minutes before 6 AM. My mother didn’t cry, which was kind of weird. My dad took us home and grandma came with bagels and lox for lunch. I had dinner at my grandfather’s house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)