B E A Utiful in Mendoza

I just managed to lose 6 consecutive games of Chess. No, I don´t have lots of extra time on my hands or anything, it just seemed like the appropriate game for the last 2 hours to partake in...and Yes, some of the games lasted under 5 minutes. Pitiful. I had higher self-expectations than that.
Ahh, Mendoza. Yes. Safe to say this is my favorite place I´ve been to thus far in my travels. Perfect size, 150 thousand people...parks every few blocks, great outdoor cafes that between the hours of noon and 3, and 9pm til 4 am, the streets are lined with chairs and people sitting outside. Its irresistable to grab a seat and join the lounging experience.
I´m also gaining an appreciation for the Siesta- At first, I was quite frustrated that everytthing is shut down from 1230 til 530...since this is my peak operation time...but now I realize its so friggin hot, and people need their naps. I have taken quite a liking to the midafternoon nap, which sometimes results in the waking up, eating breakfast-lunch, and then taking a 3 hour nap before starting the late afternoon.
Now, some of you may think that I am not doing anything, but, this is far from true. Yesterday, I sat at a cafe for 4 hours and indulged myself with a bottle of Malbec Wine, and Icecream. And than I cooked dinner after a lovely late afternoon swim, and short shopping excursion. I felt quite accomplished. Sometimes, I even go to a museum or two...
Today, ah, today... hoy vamanos rafting. White Water Rafting, if you will. Actually, the river is a lovely shade of brown that resembles chocolate milk, so I prefer to call it Chocolate Rafting. It was grade 4, which means the rapid are quite...rapídy. It was a terrific day. I have officially turned into Heidi, AKA MOM, as I make snacks for the road...including grapes, peaches, a sandwich, and of course, a wet napkin for my sticker fingers. Our raft was all ladies, and we certantly dominated that damn river. We paddled forward, backwards, jumped to the left, and heaved ourselves into the center on command. Although, the command were in Spanish, and I was in the front....at one point our guide yelled for all of us to jump to the center as we hit a rock, and I apparantly was in lala land...and started paddling forward. Oops. But I didn{t fall. Now taht I look back, there was a nother point of the day when I was in teh back of the boat when the guide must have thought I was going to fall over because he lunged at me and pulled me into the boat. Ha. Ah well. It was a beautiful day, clear sky, and we could see Cerro Aconcagua....the highest mountain in all of the Americas whcih is located right outside of mendoza. Really amazing to look at.
Today, after I go to bed for the night, and than wake up....will be New Years Eve. And what better things are there to do on the day of NYE than bike to a winery and taste some samples? I can´t thinki of anything that tops it....if you do, please, post a comment and dispute.
Fireworks are starting outside, and I can no longer concentrate on a computer.

beef. its whats for dinner again

Chile was too chilly for my likings. On to warmer climate, and as quick as a snap...I´m back to Mendoza, Argentina. Well, actually, it wasn´t quick as a snap, or easy whatsoever getting back to Argentina, although there was defintly potential for it to be so. First the bus from Valdivia to Santiago, Chile. An overnighter which I´ve actually grown quite fond of. Cama-reclining seats which allow good sleeping, movies, and a little snack with some wine. Except this bus was the bad egg. Their was no audio with the movie, and no subtitles. What fun is that just watching a soundless screen? Well, I´ll tell you- no fun. The food was cookies and I´m dulce-leche´d out. Too many sweets. And I didn´t sleep at all because some teenager boy thought it was an appropriate time to talk and laugh on his cellphone in the middle of the night. Those who know me know how irritable and non-tolerable I am in these situations. So...we get to Santiago at 8am, to find we missed the closest bus time to leave for Mendoza, so we sit around for a few hours and catch the 1100am bus.
Mendoza, Argentina is very close to santiago, right across the border. In distance, it should only take about 2 hours, except the large structural seperation between the two is the Andes Mountains. Instead, we literally drive through the mountains, up the mountains, down the mountains, in circles around the moutains, in sketchy tunnels under the mountains, and thus, it takes about 7 hours. PLUS, there is border crossing. Considering there are about 300 busses a day crossing, you would think there would be some organization to this. But there isn´t. Instead we wait for 2 hours.
BUT, don´t get excited yet...the best is yet to come. I already experienced a baby puking incident on my plane from Boston to Miami, preceding my arrival to Argentina. Although I had to sit next to smelly sour milk vomit for 3 hours, at least it wasn´t actually on my person...this time it was much worse.
Our bus from santiago to mendoza is full...and of course, we get the lsat tickets whcih places us directly in front of the bathrooms. EW. To make matters worse, there is a family sitting in front of us, who resemble a cross of the adams family and the brady bunch. They are the family from hell with 10 people coexisitng in the seats ALL around us. Little annnoying kids screaming and crying...toddlers running around, 13 year olds being brats..i wanted to suffocate myself in the formaldehyde-smelling bathroom. At one point, a girl runs to the bathroom...when she emerges, she has vomit all over her butt of her jeans, and in route out of the bathroom, swings her ass into me as I innocently sit and anxiously count the 500 minutes left til we arrive in mendoza. SWISSSSSSH. Vomit, all over my arm, my hair, my shirt....ms. fat ass didn´t even acknowledge what she did, or that he butt was taking up more than the aisle, but also pushing into my personal space...LETALONE the vomit! I scream out...both in shock and utter dismay. I freeze...i¨m speechless. THere is VOMIT in my hair. I´m suddenly gagging, and the old man next to me is wiping my shirt with toilet paper. EWWW!! soooo gross. I have to sit on a bus wioth puke in my hair for 6 more hours, and I JUST washed my clothes before I left Chile!! SO, needless to say.. i wanted to strangle all annoying children that bothered me for the duration of the ride, and the vomit girl never apologized. No Lo Siento. No Disculpeme. NOTHING. I´ve never wanted to know how to say stupid b$tch in spanish more than I did at this moment.
HOWVER, i am now in mendoza. Its hot, beautiful, sunnny, and there is a pool at my hostel. So aftrer my 24 hours from hell on the bus, things are good.

valdivia

Note to self...don´t eat the fresh seafood they serve at the fishmarket... it will do bad things

christmas in valdi....via

I attempted Pucon. Really, i did. However, after finding the population of isaelis in Pucon who were traveling was greater than those of the locals, AND, after being mistook for an Israeli 4 times, and handed Hebrew translations by street vendors I truly felt like a foreigner. But seriously guys, thats not why I left!!! Unfortunately, the weather from Bariloche followed me and it was rainy the whole time in Pucon, so I couldn´t climb the volcano. The hotsprings were still in tact (believe it or not, they still exist, even through the rain), but after two days, I was done. Hopped another quick bus to the coast of Chile to valdivia. my canadian travel buddy is here, so the holiday celebrations have begun. Combining both of our holiday traditions for Christmas...(mine being eating chinese and seeing a movie), we found the single restaurant restaurant that was open this evening and indulged ourselves in cheap wine and chowmein.
tomorrow, we will follow her traditions, which consist of drinking baileys with our coffee and cooking eggs. haha, good combination. I´m attempting to get back to Argentina for New Years, but finding some difficulty in getting a bus. Actually the difficulty is that I´m not really trying too hard...but one of these days... i´ll get to the terminal. However, my christmas celebrations tommorow will consist of renting a paddleboat and having a wine drinking derby. Good wine is hard to resist...
Feliz Navidad

to Pucon and beyond.

I made the plunge. I not only left Bariloche after a week of chilly weather, but I jumped the border to Chile.

Bariloche had potential to be wonderful... with the exception that the Irish Bar wouldn´t let me in because I was wearing flipflops (so of course, I borrowed a random girls shoes from the side fo the road to walk in with, and then promptly put my flippers back on), and, my final day where we decided to rent bikes.
It was actually blue sky when we awoke, so we had high hopes for the 35 kilometer bike circuit. I definitly had confidence that I could bike 20miles, unfortunately, my confidence was squashed, and rightfully so. The entire loop was a giant hill. What goes up must come down, eventually, right? NO. It didn´t...ever. My legs where burning and with 10 kilometeres left, it was pouring rain and cold. Carolynn and I were miserable at this point, and I´m yelling to the wilderness since we are in the middle of NOWHERE, that I¨M NOT HAVING FUN ANYMORE... At this point, we are at a slow acsent up the hill from hell, and I yell ahead that I´m pulling over and sacrificing my bike to the lake next to us.... As I say this, low and behold, like something from above shining through, there is a sign in the middle of nowhere, directly to our left, for a Cerveceria, an Artesenal Brewery with local beer. WHOOOOO! I´m soaking wet, and tired, and freezing, and truly was about to giveup...
instead, we drank beer for 3 hours and found a nice man to put our bikes into his truck and drive us back to the rental place, where we then hitched another ride back into town.

True story. But that was my final straw of Bariloche.

I awoke yesterday, and immediately packed my bags and went to the bus station. Apparantly I was late, as the bus I was hoping to take was about to leave. The terminal guy tells me to run to the bus and hop on, without a ticket. OK... I´m supposedly headed to some small town in Chile, but I don´t know exactly where it is, or if this bus even takes me tehre directly! It doesn´t, and 4 hours into the ride, they ask for my ticket, haha, which I don´t even have. But I met a lovely israeli ont he bus who was also headed to the same destination, so he helped me find my transfer ticket, and ah...I´m now in Pucon, Chile. Tiny village with a population of 6000 people, surrounded by volcanos (active) and hotsprings. I think I´ll leave tomorrow to go tothe beach though, I need some heat.

pictures..at least a few

kissy kissy with the penguins!! the colony has over 70,000.

I dont know why this picture is sideways... but at least i posted it...

middle picture is from Iguazu Falls

siete lagos

Something bizarre has happened in bariloche. Although the weather remains quite warm, if not hot throughout the rest of Argentina- Bariloche and the surrounding areas are cooooold! This foils my plans of doing plenty of outdoor activities, like rafting, kayaking, and paragliding. Ive frozen my butt off, and have settled on the other activities of hiking and biking. Which don´t get me wrong, are still enjoyable, and the mountain ranges here are stunning, but still...its cold. So we decided to rent a car. Within a 2hour range, there is a trail that follows the seven lakes, and supposedly is amazing. We figured we would take a day trip of it, and leave in the morning, and come back late.
Early, became crack of dawn, as we left at 530am to catch the sunrise over the lakes. It was beautiful. Not that it should be that rare for me to catch a sunrise since my normal hour of heading to bed comes around dawn, but at least this time my head was clear. The roads through the lakes are amazing. Windy, gravel (which was a little, actually REALLY bumpy and slow to get through) and through dense forests which resembled the wizard of oz. I was waiting for the trees to start talking to me... :-) Lots of stop-offs for scenic pictures.

I may rethink my next 10 days and head somewhere a bit warmer, as my body is not prepared for cold weather. Its supposed to be summer here!

bariloche...here to stay

I´ve hit my threshold for taking busses. 4 busses ranging from 10 to 20 hours in the last 9 days...I´m done. I made it into bariloche this morning, and I decided I´m staying here. The town resembles a ski resort town out west, kind of lake tahoe...since we are in the lake district and the northern section of Patagonia its the best of all worlds. Its summer but the mountains which surround us have snow caps and the lakes are crystally blue. Perfect. I´m here to stay, probably a few weeks til I am forced to move on.

And the most exciting thing, I found a camera shop and purchased a new battery, and more importantly, bought a CHARGER since mine is fried. Easy enough. 85 US dollars later, I now can use my 250$ camera again. Should have just gotten a cheap disposable one at this point. Oh well, pictures will be grand, and now I can post my penguins!

pictures....slowly but surely

I´ve figured out how to post pictures...which is great. Except, my camera battery died and my charger broke (lucky me...) so i can{t access the pictures from my camera!! Im in a small town so there aren{t many options for buying a new one, but hopefully in a few days I will find a new charger. The pic of Iguazu that I managed to post before my camera died is the smaller group of waterfalls, but its still beautiful. Right now I´m still in Puerto Madryn. I really like it here so I decided not to leave when the 4 guys I was traveling with left yesterday. I will be hoppin on another finely established bus tomorrow to the border of argentina and chile, to Bariloche, the Lake district. But for the past 2 days, the beach has been calling me, and so has windsurfing. oooh, fun! I met a british girl who is heading to the Patagonia region as well, so I havent really been alone yet. Sooner or later I´ll go solo.

penguins and orcas and whales, oh my! Puerto Madryn

With all the past difficulty I faced in posting blogs because everything was in spanish, well, this is computer has certaintly surpassed those difficulties because its in Hebrew. So, hopefully this will post.
I´ve made it to central Argentina, along the Atlantic coast to Puerto Madryn. Its a quaint, small, and adorable town right on the beach and within walking distance to everything. But its not the beach that makes this place fantastic, its the wildlife. I´ll start with day 2, which was yesterday.
We decided to rent a car amongst the 5 of us. I´m still traveling with the 2 swiss and candian people I met in Buenos Aires. A car gave us the freedom to tour at our leisure, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. So yesterday we drove about 90 minutes south of here to the Penguins. I had no idea what to expect, since the temperature is getting warm here and when I picture penguins, I think of emperor penguins in Antarctica. We start getting closer, and there are signs that for penguin crossing and i´m so excited I literally have my head hanging out of the window of our TINY Dodge Omni which is fitting 5 of us. There were over 70,000 penguins at this colony that we went to. It was so funny because it wasn´t the atmosphere that you expect to see penguins. The land looks desert like, but its right on the water...so there are these little 2 foot squagglers taht look like little people wandering around everywhere. The paths that you walk on are throughout the colony, so I sit down, and have 6 little critters walk upto me. There were mothers and babies, young penguins, and some even guarding their eggs. It was such a amazing site, and I was thrilled the entire time. When you look down at the water, there were thousands basking and swimming around...so funny!!
Today we drove to the peninsula that is connected to Puerto Madryn. This is where the whales and sealions are. Of course, I wake up first this morning, because we are supposed to catch our boat tour at 10am (yes, we opted for a tour which was a must to see the whales). Except, the boat is an hour from our hostel, and I´m trying to arise the 4 guys at 830 so we can get going. The boat tour took us out into an area of the peninsula where the Right Whales were. Not only did we see the whales, but there were 4 of them together, right next to our boat at one point. 3 adults, who were about 20 meters long each, and one baby, about 6 meters. It was amazing! You could see thim swimming under water and then these huge mammals would surface just feet awayfrom the edge of the boat. Wow. And than...my camera battery died. Crap.
After the boat ride we continued to drive around the peninsula stopping off along the way to walk and admire the sights. We saw thousands, literally, of sealions basking in the sun. The wildlife is so diverse and random as you drive around this area. It looks like barron desert like i said before, and there are cows, sheep, llama-type animals, jackrabbits, and caprybams (i think thats what they are called) running across the road in front of us the whole time, and 50 yards to the right is the ocean iwth whales, dolphins, and penguins! The locals said it was doubtful taht we would see any Orcas since their season is almost over, but maybe if we were lucky. Our last walk of the day, someone tells us that in the bay ahead 2 orcas were spotted earlier, so we should give it a look. Sure enough, as Benny and I approach, I immediately see the fins go up in the water. I thought the penguins were my highlight of this particular trip, but the orcas definitly win. We were quite a distance away so I couldnñt get pictures. Actually, my battery was dead so i couldnt get pictures regardless, but you oculd CLEAARLY see them! Plus we had binoculars so when they submerged to thetop and flailed around, you could see the entire whale. It was incredible. There were sealions all around, and you could see the orcas stalking the edge of the water.IT was like watching national geographic.
I think I´ll stay here for another day or two and do some kayaking and biking in the next days. I also think i figured out how to post pictures, so hopefully....