Lake Tahoe, Big Blue, Final Destination

Well folks, 5,600 miles later, I have arrived in Lake Tahoe. I didn't want to brag on her for fear of karma, but my Jeep in an amazing vehicle. I had doubts through the entire trip, always kept an eye on the gauges, slept in her about 10 times, and gave her an affectionate pat on the dash about every 1,000 miles and she saw me through flawlessly. Even in single digit temps. The only time I had a problem was when I left her with the Marriott valet guys who managed to kill her battery....or maybe she was just mad at me for leaving her with someone else. In fact, she got stronger the entire trip. I got the best gas mileage out of the last tank of gas. I hadn't stretched the Jeeps legs in years and it did her good. She is now 160,000 miles old and looks a little worse for the wear but she's 100% american and i'll keep her as long as I can. I think I am in love with my vehicle.

Anyway, after Portland I headed straight for the 101 or Pacific Coast Highway and what a glorious road it was. Winding its way along the coast through cute little towns, beautiful forests and amazing coastal vistas. It was a little fogged in for my trip but I thought it added to the dramatic rocky cliffs falling straight into the thrashing pacific. I spent the next night in the Jeep just outside Redwoods national park which the 101 runs through. I did a few short hikes to get immersed in the enormity of the giant redwoods and it is indescribable. It felt like a scene from a sci fi movie. Some of those trees are over 1,500 years old. After the redwoods, I hit the next main road through the coastal mountain ranges heading east toward lake tahoe. I was pretty burnt on scenery at this point so I didn't take too many photo ops but I did make it safely to Tahoe in time to grab dinner at the local pub and watch some late night TV with dad. Now the job search begins. And as a follow up to the "best beer in the house" story from Spokane. I now ask for the "Cheapest Beer" in the house and people always seem to know exactly what I want.

Freedom

Portland

Well well well, here it is much later than I would have liked to get you another update. Internet access and free time has been difficult to come by. My Trek into Canada was fantastic. Funny thing is that I had more hassle at the canadian border than any border in South America. Nevertheless, I made it to Calgary where I met with an old college girlfriend. We spent the next 8 days between Banff and Jasper national parks in the Alberta Province of Canada. The canadian rockies were seriously amazing. Winter had settled in a little early so many of the hiking trails were snow packed. We spent our first 3 nights at the Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel which was a truely amazing hotel. The hotel had an amazing feel and kicked off our visit with a bang. With the unseasonably cold weather we spent a lot of time exploring the bars and did we ever explore them. I think we checked off nearly every bar in the town of Banff and knew many bartenders by their first names. We did a little hiking, a lot of driving and a lot of picture taking. After canada I sped back through Calgary and crossed the border back to the US via Idaho with Bruce Springsteen blaring on the radio. I made it to Spokane, WA for my first night back. I have hit a lot of bars on this road trip. Right now Sioux Falls, Bozeman and Banff are tops on my list for great small town bars. In particular nearly everyone in Canada was super nice. We were continually amazed at the level of friendliness, sincerity and kindness extended by all of our canadian hosts and friends alike. However, the bar I hit in Spokane, the Red Lion BBQ, was atrocious. By far the worst friendly experience ever. And I don't mean the patrons, the owner and the bartender included. I asked the bartender (one of which was the owner) for his best beer in the house....getting tired of asking for "anything on special". He gave me gruff...blah blah blah. I mean, how hard is that proposition, I told him he could feel free to give me what he thought was his beer in the house. He couldn't do it. He wanted to know what I liked. I think he had a self esteem problem. I ended up just telling him to give me a Guiness. He then walked behind the bar and started complaining to the guy sitting next to me about how much he hates that question. Right in front of me...bitching about....well me. I tried to interject and they both ignored me. It then became obvious to me the other reason the guy next to me was a real DB was becuase it seemed like he was "involved" with the other "hot" bartender. You know the type...the guy who can't leave his hot GF alone because he is afraid someone better than him will scoop her up so he sits at her bar and hawks over her. Yeah, he just sat there milking a beer, not talking to anyone and creepily leering at any guy who checked out his girls jugs. This was the first bar of my entire trip I came out of drinking less than 3 beers and not having at least a cordial hi how are you type of convo with someone. Save yourself some time, go to Bozeman, MT instead. I couldn't stop having amazing convos in that town.

Tomorrow is down the coast and probably one more night on the road before heading inland to Lake Tahoe...I am looking forward to getting to a bed that I can call my own, that is not the back of my Jeep.

Snow snow snow

Ok, so I am leaving some huge holes in my Blogs which I promise to fill in with a monster post in the near future. For now, this is one of those updates where just in case no one hears from me you can use this information to tell people where to start the search. Just kidding, I don't think today is going to be that hairy...but this is Montana, and it is snowing and I am driving to the mountains and they are calling for record breaking low temperatures tonight. So....anyway, I am in Bozeman, MT right now which is really an amazing little town. I love it. Its a college town, a ski town, a rancher town all wrapped up into one. The downtown area was very nice. I found a great coffee shop with honor system coffee, and believe it or not a Fraternal Order of Eagles club right next door. I bellied up to the bar, watched the Nebraska vs Mizou game and made some great friends. Hell, they were ready to drink all night. I even ran into some Nebraska fans who as always were great people. I woke up to several inches of snow on the ground and still snowing. They don't even really bother to plow the roads here which makes for some slippery predicaments.

Plans today. I was going up to Whitefish, MT to stay near Glacier but the snow is going to make that difficult. I am taking the interstate route, especially with those sub zero temperatures on the horizon. This means I will most likely miss out on most of Glacier and the great little town of Whitefish but I still have plenty of mountains ahead of me in Banf and Jasper up in Canadia. SO, I'll be staying in Great Falls tonight at the Quality Inn and heading for the Marriott in Calgary early the next morning. Wish me luck.

Pierce

Wow!!!! Ok, I have a lot of catching up to do for everyone...and.......today is not the day. Big day of seeing some american icons is on my plate and the sunlight will melt away faster than an untended ice cream cone. So, the quick update, I am in Rapid City, SD. I've slept in my Jeep for the last 3 nights...and no I haven't showered. Its liberating..nothing but open road, fresh air and a compass rose holding steady on the big W. I plan to have a down day soon, to do laundry, shower and catch up on this blog including posting some pics. Today, its Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and the Black Hills, then on to the least populous state in the union...Wyoming. I need a cowboy hat.

P

Bariloche update

Things here are going great but there isn't really a lot to do. I am heading up to the big ski mountain today at Cerro Catedral, South AMericas biggest to check it out. However, the snow is pretty thin and its been windy so I don't think I am going to sink the 150 or so dollars it would cost to do a full day on the slopes. Yesterday along with my Irish friends, we rented a car and drove nearly 400Kms around the country side exploring and seeing the mountains. We drove all the way to a town called El Bolson which was supposed to be a cute little hippie town where everything was handmade vegetarian and nuclear free. The town ended up being a dump and didn't feel anything like a hippie town, so we grabbed a pizza and took off. We did manage to back the rental car into another pickup truck, both vehicles were backing up and neither driver saw the other...i'll have to update you on the damage from the rental car company..oh yeah a side view mirror got ripped of overnight too...the irish crew said they bought all the insurance so we shall see. Overall Bariloche is a big party town. Tons of young people, all hitting the clubs very late. We were out again last night till about 6am drinking lots of beers and watching all of the hot, young latin women shaking it up across the town. More later, for now, off to the mountain.\

Oh yeah, I bought my tick to Bs As, I depart the Loche noon on tuesday for arrival in Bs As noon on Wed.

Out, Pierce

Chocolate, Snow Bunnies and Cervezas

Well, I made it without incident to Bariloche. The bus rides were easy and uneventful. I spent my first afternoon in Bariloche walking around the town and finally settled on a bar called the Map Room where I pulled myself up to the bar with my Argentina travel book, ready to plan my trip. Next thing I know, I am engaged in conversation with two guys and a girl from Ireland. Their company had just been closed and they were traveling on their severance. We all bitched about the thin snow on the mountain and the fact that Bariloche is famous for their night clubs but due to the swine flu the Govt has closed them through the end of the month. We decided to hook up to rent a car on Saturday to drive the lake district and that the next day, today we wouldn't really plan anything. I love the Irish and at the same time I hate the Irish. At least I was hating them when I spent all day today sleeping off a hangover. We started at the map room enjoying some nice craft beers, porters, stouts with some irish whiskey sprinkled in there. Around 2 we decided to go grab '1' more beer at the only happening night spot that was open. That one beer turned into about 4 more. The bar was quite a happening place especially for youngsters, most of them looked amazingly young but all looked amazingly hot...it was nice. Anyway, we enjoyed the scene until about 6 in the morning when I stumbled home, ate a loaf of pound cake and passed out. The hostel staff woke me up at 11 as requested because I wanted to the tour de france on tv..yeah that wasn't happening...i slept till about 6pm..and finally was able to go grab some dinner and see the sun set on the lake. Tonight bowling in on tap with my Irish friends and tomorrow we do the car rental when I can really see this place. Bariloche is very nice...definitely a high class ski town. Lots of expensive shops, restaurants and beautiful people. Looks like I'll stay through Tuesday morning and catch my last bus to Bs As.

Thats it for now....keep on trucking

Pierce

Chau Chile

Well, this will be last post from Chile. I am hopping on Tur Bus heading for Osorno tonight in the South of Chile, then I am hopping a bus to Bariloche up in the Argentine mountains. Things here have been wonderful. I stayed longer than I expected becuase the city, my living situation and everything was perfect. I am now loaded down with gifts etc so I am looking forward to getting to Beunos Aires where I now my travelling will be nearly complete. I spent my last night with some friends enoying some amazing Ceviche, Pisco Sours and Octopus...it was all very tasty. I now have about 22 hours of travel in front of me but thats nothing compared to the nearly 40 hours it took me to get here so I am sure it will be a breeze. I´ll get back on the blog once I get settled in Bariloche.

Pierce

T-Bars, Coffee and Hoes

The ski trip on Saturday was great. They have some pretty neat ski tours here. All we had to do was show up at a ski shop around 7 30 am. At the shop they set you up with all your equipment, pants, jackets gloves, goggles etc, put you in a shared ride to the mountain of your choice and then pick you up at the end of the day and bring you home. It was easy peazy. We skiied the resort called El Colorado which had the most snow in the area at nearly 200cm which is a lot for this time of year. The resort was different than any place I have ever skied in the US. First off, overall it was smaller. The ski terrain was fairly large but the lodge facilities etc were nothing compared to any of the resorts in the states or europe for that matter. The terrain was also amazingly different. It was completely above treeline so there were no trees..only rocks, snow, fences and equipment to move people. They had very few chairlifts..mostly all T-Bars where a bar comes around that you put behind your backside and it hauls you up the mountain while you stand on your skis...this mountain must have been so easy to construct...no tree clearing etc. Anyway, overall, the terrain was not that challenging or extreme, just different. We really lucked out with weather. When we arrived the wind was holwling and I really thought that we were going to be in for an epic day of surviival on the slopes but as soon as we purchased our tickets, the wind dissapeared...amazing. We never got much sun but it wasn´t bitter cold either, just in the lower 20´s or so. One strange experience I had was on the back side of the mountain. Remember, there are no trees. At this time we had a lot of what I call Flat Light...where the sky is about the same color as the snow and washes out all of the light so there are not really any shadows and most of your depth perception is shot. I´ve had this before but with scattered trees, rocks, dirt, etc you can do ok. No here, I would litteraly get freaked out because I felt like I couldn´t see the snow I was skiing, then I would go to stop and nearly fall over becuase I became so disoriented....everything was stark white..it was strange. I went back over to the front side of the mountain where the slopes had more direct light and the snow was better anyway. I will say that I was very suprised at how good Chileans ski. I expected to see beginners everywhere but it was quite the opposite..they were cutting up the snow like pro´s...although, I didn´t see too many of them venture into the loads of unexplored snow..they seemed to like the skied over terrain and avoided what was some crusty, sind packed but decent powder. The lodge food was also more expensive than anywhere I have been. I paid about $20 for a shitty piece of salmon, french fries, watered down soup and a water. I went with 4 other gringos I met in Santiago, three girls (german, russian and dutch) and a guy from Brasil who grew up in the states. They were all beginners. I may have some aspirations of being a ski instructor this winter so I spend the first run with them trying to teach them the basics...it took nearly an hour to complete the first run..a few of them got it pretty quick but two of them just couldn´t get the legs to work together with the skis. Anyway, that is the ski experience..now for some slight dirt on Santiago.

I had heard of an interesting type of cafe in Santiago that they call ´cofee with legs´. They can be identified as having regular cafe type signage but then with all blacked out windows. I had to check one of these out. So I found one that looked decent and walked in. I was greeted by two chilean ladies in high heels, skimpy skirts and boobs spilling out of their tops. They were suprised to see me come in and though I was lost. I had to ask just to make sure they were open becuase I was the only customer at this time. I asked if they had coffee and they seemed confused, then the manager came over and asked in spanish..whats going on here? I said I wanted coffee at which time she asked me if wanted to take my coffee upstairs with company or down stairs at the coffee counter. I quickly glanced upstairs at a huddle of more skantily clad women, very low light and a generaly shady feel. I chose to take my cofee downstairs where there was more light...so of course I could better apreciate the scenery. That is most of the excitement, I hung out, made just a little small talk with the waitress who looked better in the dark, paid for my cofee and hit the road. My other sahdy exprience was back during my walk in the rain which I blogged on early but I just remembered this spicy little slice the other day. When I left the bar around 2am in a pouring rain with no umbrella, i was hustling down the sidewalk when I spotted what I immediately identified as a prostitute. And to be honest if it hadn´t of been raining I probably would not have noticed her...but here are the circumstances.

1) Its pouring rain...no one is just standing around...everyone is trying to go some where out of the rain.
2) She is wearing high heels, has long hair (soaking wet of course), short skirt and a lot of makeup
3) There is one man standing with her but looking stiff and shady..both are soaking wet...(i admire their work ethic)
4) Her eyes flash dollar signs when she sees me
5) As I am huddled over briskly walking past, she comes in pursuit...I could hear the rythmic clatter of her high heels.

I couldn´t make out everything she was saying..she was switching between chilean and bad english...where you go? You want talk? I will say I turned around once just to give her another once over because she was exceptionally tall for a chilean and really was pretty good looking but neverteless I stayed my course and hustled on to bus stop further up the road.

Thats news for now. Today I am wrapping up things here..going to buy bus tickets, doing some more gift shopping (i don´t like typing souvenier) and of course doing some more spanish homework. The Tour de France is underway and I can´t get the coverage on TV down here...that sinks but at least I will be home to see the last stages..Until next time!

Pierce

America F-yeah

Things here in Santiago are about the same. I am taking advantage of just living here. Doing all the regular things, going to movies...Transformers was great action, thin plot, hot Megan Fox and terrible Labouf. Its till cold but I am used to it and the mountains have great snow which I am going to beat up this weekend. I don´t really have a ton of new news. I bought a pair of Jeans. Spanish is still coming slowly, I am too logical in thinking to lean it quickly. My brain wants to treat it like a math problem. I miss the summer parties back home. My mom is back from the AT and had a wonderful experience. I can´t wait to have a few beers with her and swap stories. I had an epiphany to recover some of my lost pictures. I used a deleted file recovery program on my camera card and was able to recover some deleted pics from my Jungle trip. I have been trying to soak up the night life a little more. Many of their favorite late night dishes have to do with french fries and I thought we knew how to do fries..nope, they it covered down here..litterally, cheese, steak, everything and its delicious. My last portion of this blog is below. I actually wrote it around 3am last Saturday night but wanted to edit it before sending. Its still pretty raw but its me....


Ok, so this post may have been brewing for sometime, it just took a few beers a good hamburger and some country music to bring it to a head. Tonight, was rather slow. There was a lot of rain in the forecast. I headed out early to check out a big modern shopping mall that was nice and new but really only full of shops just like home....literally, Levis, Wrangler, Head, Puma, Tommy Hillfiger, they were all there. I came home around 10, had a large beer and headed out, in the rain to a less than Chilean bar called Flanigans..yeah thats right it was an Irish bar and yes it was full of drunk people. I spent about two liters of beer at the bar, enjoying the scene and being a little non south american. When closing time came around 2 i wasn´t in the mood to move to one of the all night clubs..it was raining pretty steady so I headed for home which meant a 15 minute bus ride then a 25 minute walk in the rain. Luckily, there was a micky D´s on the way home where I picked up a few cheese burgers. It was while walking home from micky D´s with half a cheese burger shoved in my mouth, Alan Jackson playing on my iPod, rain dripping from my hat and lots of beer flowing through my veins that i bacame dangerously proud of america. So proud that i refuesed to throw away my micky D´s bag, but carried it proudly, not becuase it was a sign of impending obesity for the world but becuase it was a symbol of america. I starting singing my country music out loud and the american dream was flowing through my veins. I have spent the last months seeing this continent and trying to allow myself to be absorbed but it is hard when most of these countries are still reaching to obtain what we already have. So, for now I am on a little blog podium asking any of you still reading this blog to ask yourselves what being an american (or eurpoean or other nationality) means? Personally, I see us growing weaker and weaker as our standard of living raises...becuase we are asleep at the wheel. If we are not trying to stay on top, everyone else is sneaking up on our flanks trying to take our position. se your skills, use your education, reach for greatness and don´t take our position for granted becuase our children will pay the price, we are not entitled to a life of leisure, our forefathers worked to provide us with the opportunites which we have today and must work just as hard to provide the same opportunities for our future generations because the world is coming for us.

Oh yeah, I still owe you guys a blog on Machu Piccu which I forgot because all my notes are gone and I thought I had already written on it...this is a must but I´l save it for another night soon...chu chu was amazing..so far ranking my experiences goes as follows

1) Boca Juniors soccer match, Beunos Aires
2) Jungle, Peru
3) Isla del sol, lake titicaca, Bolivia
4) Machu Piccu, Peru
5) Potosi Mine tour Bolivia
6) Uniou salt flats Bolivia
7) The Museum night club, Buenos Aires
8) Skiing in Chile???

Giddyup

Cold

So, I want to expand on the climate a little. Its not super cold here, nights get around zero and days get into the 50´s at times. This is normal back home and I would never think that this is an extreme circumstance...however, the cold is inescapable..litterally. I realized the gravity of the situation when I questioned the family about leaving the milk out on the counter all the time...they responded with the fact that in the winter its ok because it doesn´t get warm enough to spoil..we used this theory back home but it was with beer and we left it OUTSIDE becuase that is where it is supposed to be cold..not where we sleep. So, I am getting used to it but it is sobering when you realize that you could very possibly be cold for a very long time....like 3 months. A lot of public buildings have heat so I usally go out during the days to cafes etc. Its also strange that in the house, they do have some propane fired heaters (expensive for them to run) but then they always seem to leave the doors wide open...I don´t get it. But I now own slippers for the first time in my life and have been wearing dirty long underwear for about a week becuase I don´t want to give them up for the day that it would take to wash and dry them. I am now going to crawl into bed where i can stay toasty warm.

Getting back in gear

Ok, so I have been putting off this update for a few reasons. First, I have a lot to catch up on and second it makes me angry to rehash some of the events. So, here we go. I left off the last update on my way to Santiago. Before I get into this I want to touch on a very troubling aspect of travelling in South America. Petty theft is huge and as a gringo you are the number one target. The majority of travellers I have met have been robbed or cheated out of money or belongings. Its disturbing and frustrating. We are marked targets becuase people think we have things they want and that its ok for them to releive us of these things becuase they are more needy. I don´t know the reasoning but for a continent that claims something like 90% catholic it is interesting that there is so much fraud and theft. Its truely sad becuase the people being robbed are usually only here to enjoy their country, spend money and learn about their culture. It leaves a very sour taste to be robbed and for people to just say, its normal. Its also very difficult to travel alone under these circumstances. For two months of my trip I had been super careful. Every bus ride I would litterally strap my things to a chair, loose sleep becuase I was clinging to my backpack in my lap and worrying about someone slipping me mescaline and then robbing me completely blind..this happens, I met a girl who had been slipped mescaline on a bus, she woke up some hours later and the people had taken everything including her jaket and shoes....all of this while riding a bus. Anyway, I am bitter. I was mid way through my 31 hour bus to Santiago, I had paid extra for the first class cabin and took its safety for granted. My small backpack was stolen from under my seat including my laptop, cell phone, credit cards, all my spanish learning materials, small items like sunglasses etc and worst off all of my pictures were on my laptop. I then had to ride out another 15 hours on the bus wondering what was being charged on my credit cards. I really wanted a few stiff drinks but my stash of Jim Beam had also been in my backpack. Luckily, once i arrived at a phone the cards were still clean and i got them cancelled. The laptop was only a $400 model and luckily I had my passport, ATM card, Iphone, camera and iPod in my pockets...I have big pockets. So its cool, but I can´t replace the pics...which as my brother responded:

Damn that sucks to loose all those pictures...at least you still have your
memory to count on, like Lewis and Clark on their expedition. I bet
Christopher Colombus would have loved a camera when he found America. You
still got all the pictures, they are just upstairs in your head.

Anyway, I am over it and it won´t ruin my trip. Now, on with the update.

First I have to write on the Jungle in Peru. I lost my notbook with all my notes so I have to get some of these thoughts recorded. The trip started with a flight to Puerto Maldonado where we jumped on a boat down the river to our Lodge. Our lodge was unexpectedly comfortable. The cabins had basic beds with full mosquito nets and private bathrooms with intermittent hot water, although I never showered there. They prepared amazingly tasty jungle dishes for every meal with freshly made jungle juices from local fruits etc. There was a Macaw (a big parrot) who lived at the lodge. It was bright blue and yellow and seemed to love people..or at least to harrass them. It was realy fun. Whenever we were in the lodge, the Mackaw wanted in, he would litteraly chew through the straw roof to get in, then swoop down scaring people and trying to poop on you from the rafters. One morning I heard a girl screaming and then running, stumbling and crawling across the field behind the lodge, next I see the makaw swooping behind her. She made it into the lodge where she was playing a game of chineese checkers when the mackaw broke in again through the roof, swooped down to the game board and started eating the pieces. This makaw was pretty damn funny and he loved the ladies.

The Jungle was amazing.....rich, dangerous, colorful and full of suprises. At night we would do night walks with flashlights to see the jungle come alive. The sounds were amazing, from the normal crickets to the howler monkeys that would keep you up at night. I really enjoyed just listening. The amazing thing about the jungle is that everything which exists in the jungle exists becuase it earned a place. Everything has defense systems..either thorns, poisons or allies which can help defend it. For example, there is a specific tree which is always inhabitated with fire ants. The ants feed off the tree and also clear the ground around the tree of all encroaching vegetation. If the trunk is touched the ants drop from the branches to attack the predator. Without the ants the tree dies and vice versa...pretty cool. Also, you don´t want to fall down in the jungle. Chances are you fall on ants, a snake, something bad...or if you try to grab a tree, you most likely get a 3 inch thorn through your hand. So, some of the things we saw and did. Tons of ants, leaf cutters, bullet ants, army ants, fire ants. A single snake. Lots of spiders, tarantulas, banana spiders and others. Lots of parrots and exotic birds. Caimen (gators). We hiked through deep mud (wearing wading boots) to an inland lake (sandoval) where we canoed around. We went monkey spotting and found a tribe of monkeys that actually got a little scary. Our guide ´´called´´ them in with a crazy whistle and once they were getting close the guide wanted us to walk back to a clearing where it was more safe..well the ´´alpha´´male monkey cut off our retreat quickly and before we knew it we were surrounded my monkeys crawling down trees and all staring at us and making noises. Our guide stayed calm, and eventually manuvered us out of harms way but then told us that if the alpha male had atacked us, all of the monkeys would have attacked and it would have not been good. During the trip I met two more nice folks from Sweeden who I really hope look me up on facebook so I can get some pics from them. The guy has an amazing picture of the crazy makaw flying straight into his camera lens. I flew out of the jungle in the midst of many indeigenous protests (you may have seen some of it on the news) and returned to Cusco where I jumped a night bus to Arica, Chile.

Arica was nice and laid back. Kind of a sleepy beach town but since it was getting into winter the beaches were deserted but I didnt really think the beaches were that nice anyway. I walked up and down the beaches for about 6 hours.

Northern Chile was amazing the coastline was extreme, dramatic and beautiful. Although I was dissapointed every night waiting for a sunset only to see the sun dissapear behind a thick layer of haze obsuring the sunset. Besides the bag theft, I arrived in Santiago with no problems. My good friend Eileen hooked me up with a fantastic host family. I have a computer in my room, they provide all my meals, hooked me up with a cell phone, showed me around town and are generally just like a real family, they call me son. Its nice and I am finally immersed in a culture. I had been trying for this entire trip to really meet locals and get into the cultre, Bolivia was close but this is fantastic. Chileans are very hard to understand, they talk about a hundred miles a minute, don´t pronounce their s´s and use so much slang its rediculous but the people are really nice, Santiago feels great and alive. The city has some of the best infrastructure I have seen anywhere. The host mom took me with her to her job on day one...she drives a small school bus and it was amazing cute to hang with all the school kids. Santiago feels a lot like being home, their shopping malls are similar, there are credit card offers everywhere, they have nice cars, people dress nice, people don´t smell, you can drink the water and I don´t feel like I stick out so much here. However, I do find it interesting that there are almost no Asians or black people here...i don´t think I have seen one black person which I find very strange. The girls are good looking, the food is rich but things are pretty much just as expensive as at home. The one creature comfort they are lacking is central heat/air. Nights get down in the 30´s here and the house has virtually no heat. They have some propane heaters but they usually are not on and don´t do a whole lot. During the day, the doors and windows are open (still cold out). Half of their kitchen is literally outside, dishwasher etc is on the porch. I wear a jacket and long underwear, all day. I am taking classes and my spanish is improving a lot. Oh yeah, i finally shaved the beard and got a haircut. The poor lady that did the job kept asking me if I was sure and there was a crowd that developed at the peluqueria to watch the removal of all the hair...its was funny. It was about a 3 month beard it was pretty thick...i had forgotten what i looked like under there but I am glad it is gone. I started to feel like it was holding me back. It was almost like at times, I was hiding behind it. So, now, I am trying to speak more and get more involved with people and I am more approachable with a clean face...plus there is so much kissing on cheeks here the beard made things a little wierd...i kept some killer side burns though.

The drinks of choice here are Pisco and wines. I tried the pisco, striaght...a lot of it, while my host sister looked on with horror in her eyes. She kept trying to get me to stop saying i was going to be in for it. I told her I had plenty of experience with these things. We went out with some of here friends, one of which insisted on talking to me all night of which I understood nearly nothing, but it was funny that he wouldn´t stop talking eventhough I would rarely be able to respond. The area we went to was called Bella Vista and it was basically all bars and clubs. It had tons of cool places. We went to a regae club that was affordable and fun. We shared the drink buying chores (hacer una vaca) and took much more pisco and cerveza´s. We stayed out till about 7 in the morning, ending the night was a 45 minute walk to get breakfast at a place that was closed when we finally called it a night...day? I never got sick off the pisco but i think it gives me really bad gas. I was lighting up the bus on the way home. So...I am out on the pisco and back to taking wine with papa at dinner and the local brews at the bars. The dinners are great becuase mama talks in slow precise phrases so I can follow but papa just rolls on with the spanish and I get some of it...but usually we just end up laughing loudly. The funniest was when he explained to me that the meat we were eating was turkey (Pavo) and he actually walked around trying to impersonate a turkey, i kept saying pollo? and he kept squaking but to me it sounded like a chicken.

Anyway, thats the update for now. I am starting to miss home and can´t wait to get home and have a big camping trip or just sit around with some of you all, tell stories and get shitty drunk.

Thats it for now, I´ll be sure to keep up with the posts better and if I can piece pics toghether from people I met along the way, I´ll post them. For now, I am going to climb back in bed becuase it is cold and raining and I want to go read my pirate book...which reminds me...I also bought pirate gloves and find out that in facebook you can change your language to English (Pirate) and all of your facebook page is then translated into Pirate...get on it.

P

Quickie

This is just a quick post to keep everyone updated. I am back from the Jungle. The trip was great. The Peruvian Jungle is really fantastic. Skeeters were not that bad, days were hot and nights were a little chilly. We got up super early every morning. I'll write much more detail later. This afternoon I jump a night bus from Cusco to Aerequipa, Transfer to Tacna and then grab a short bus over the Chilean boarder to Arica where I stay for one night. After that its another 28 hours to Santiago so I might break it up with one more stop but I am not sure yet. We will see how it goes. I am still loving the trip but I think more and more of home with each passing week. I hope everyone is doing well.

P

Change of plans, Chu Chu first

Well, I hit a bit of a snag with the Jungle trip. I took the night bus to La Paz ok, it was freezing cold but managed to get a little sleep. We arrived at the bus terminal about 6:00 am into a freezing cold, non climate controlled bus terminal. The airline office didn’t open till 9 so I just sat out the cold amongst the locals and other backpackers in the bus station. Then I caught a cab to the airline office where they told me….can you believe it…it was raining in the jungle…no flight today. All of that days flights were moved to the next day so the soonest I could hop a flight was in two days and even that was questionable. I didn’t want to waste several days in La Paz so I paid a taxi driver about $12 to drive me around for 3 hours and show me the city. The city is located in a valley with buildings built up each side. It really is a beautiful sight. The driver drove me up one side of the canyon and then up the other. He took me to a few local markets, the main gov’t sights and took me to his favorite fresh squeezed OJ stand. The highlight was the Witches Market where there is still a fairly active witch craft movement. Here you can buy a multitude of witchcraft goods including llama fetus’s which supposedly bring good fortune to a home if you bury it under a corner of the new foundation….I took pictures but didn’t touch. That afternoon, I jumped a bus to Cococabana which is located on Lake Titicaca. I met three other nice travelers, two girls from Sweden and a guy from France. The journey was very pretty. We actually had to grab a boat across part of the lake and then watch our bus float across on a barge. We joined forces and picked out a hostel together in Cococabana. Lake Titicacca is difficult to put into words. It is by far the most beautiful place I saw in Bolivia. It is known for its high altitiude (12,000ft), deep blue clear waters, fresh trout, laid back atmosphere and the famous inca islands, Isla del sol and Isla de Luna. Our first night we had an amazing trout dinner at a very unique restaurant where the owner was obviously stoned and kept mixing English and Spanish. He was very intent on us enjoying our stay. I don’t know where the kitchen was but all the food arrived by means of a knock on a door leading to an alley. Anyway, it was a pretty interesting dinner where we finished it off chewing on some coca leaves…yes the same leaves used to make cocaine but not having the same effect of course. Although they do have other effects.
The next day we wanted to get over to Isla del sol to see the Inca ruins and enjoy the vistas. First we had breakfast in a “laid back” restaurant where after we ordered our meals 15 minutes later a little boy arrived with a bag full of eggs and several of the other ingredients for our breakfast, straight from the market. We decided to take long trek and short boat ride. We walked about 13-14 miles around the lake, up and down peaks and on a short section of trail used by the Incas. This took us about 4.5 hours and we saw incredible vistas, passed through several indigenous villages where we got to really see Bolivian life. They have an incredibly deep, fishing and farming culture. Its is very simple and humble. No backpacks or fancy equipment, only slings over their backs and simple hand tools. It was amazing. On the top of one of the peaks we ran into two small children, no older than 8 with a donkey. They said they were waiting for their mother. We sat and talked with them for some time. The little girl was really chatting us up. She wanted to see all our stuff and wear the girls earrings. One of the Swedish girls even painted her fingernails. It was really cute. Their donkey didn’t have a name, they just called it Burrow. When we arrived at the port on the far end of the peninsula where we jumped a boat to Isla del Sol. It was getting late but again we opted for the hard route. We had the boat drop us off on the front edge of the island…literally we jumped over to a rock and scrambled up a hill side. We then had another 1 hour hike to the town where we would find a Hostel for the night. Walking the streets was an adventure to avoid the herd s of donkeys who delivered supplies to all the homes and businesses. Some of the children had become accustomed to tourists and would rush out and ask to take pictures with us and then immediately ask for money. We usually gave them break, fruit or candy instead. Our Hostel turned out to be quite cozy with an incredible view. We got two double rooms and they had a shower that actually had luke warm water. No TP in the bathroom and you had to pour water from a bucket to get it to flush but overall it was amazing accommodations for about $2.50 per night. We had another $3 dinner with amazing fresh trout, soup, desert and a hot chocolate. The night was again really cold with no heat but we had warm clothes and lots of blankets. It was an amazing place to stay and an amazing place to wake up. We had a full breakfast overlooking the lack from our front deck. The value here is amazing if you can handle the little nuances of the Bolivian 3rd world culture. I scooped up a nalgene full of Titicacca water (filtered with my UV light of course), grabbed another boat to the north end of the Isla to see the ruins, hustled back to the boat and then to Cocacabana where we caught a night train to Cuzco. Crossing the boarder was fun. When you enter Bolivia they give you this little scrap of paper that you are supposed to keep until you leave. I didn’t have it in my passport when I went to get my exit stamp so I was worried. The Bolivian agent pointed me toward a police officer and said twenty bolivianos. I went over and paid. Then went to the exit stamp window, the man saw I didn’t have the paper, looked at the officer who nodded and I got my stamp. This was my first official bribe. 5 minutes later I found my paper hidden in my vaccination card….but it didn’t matter it’s a good story. I am now in Cusco where I am going to Machu Picchu tonight and seeing the ruins tomorrow. This place…it is really expensive to get to and see Machu Pichu. After Chu Chu I plan to give the jungle another try in Peru in Puerto Maldonado then on to Chile!That’s the update for now…things are still great!

P

Into the heart of darkness

Today is my last full day in Sucre so I wanted to take some time to put up one last note. Today I learned why a lot of people do not eat food on the streets. I left my house today with a beefy tuna salad sandwich. Half a block from my house a large german shepherd mut started following me, then another joined, then another...I was starting to get nervous. I was so intent on keeping an eye over my shoulder that I stepped in a pile of dog crap...that pissed me off. I yelled at the dogs, they didn´t care. I finished the sandwich, they didn´t care. Finally I detoured up a really steep hill..they didn´t like that. Anyway, enough talk about dog shit. Tomorrow is my last lesson and then I catch a 7pm night bus to La Paz where I am going to try and catch a flight if they have room to the jungle village of Rurrenabaque where I will spend about 4 days, 2 nights on a jungle tour where I will actually be sleeping in a camp in the jungle. Orginally I had not planned on going to he jungle do wasn´t completely prepared but over the course of this week I picked up the essentials, msquit netting, bug spray. 32 tablets of doxycycline to help prevent malaria, sunscreen, plastic bags..etc...etc. Needless to say, i won´t be sending emails or making phone calls. But, i´ve always been intrqued by the jungles and enjoyed the discovery channel programs so whilst I am so close, I am going in. Thanks goodness my mom is still on the appalachian trail and can´t read this until i am already safely back from the jungle!

Its tough to leave sucre. have become very comfrtable here using the publc trans, shopping, living etc...its been really great and really affrdable..did mention the perfect weather every day.

To conclude this post I want to get into one of the many thoughts I have been pondering since being in Bolivia. Actually more of a hstory lesson I guess...i like history. Why is the US so big, wealthy and powerfull and what should we do with these attributes. The two continents (north and south america) are not really all that different. Both have tons of natural resources, similar weather, similar port access, etc etc. Both were settled in similar time periods. However, there are some marked differences between the histories. While all original settling of the new world were for greed, the explorers did not find a lot of wealth in north america. Our first settlers arrvived not with aspirations of wealth by means of precous metals but through religious freedom and starting new lives. In south america, the explorers found native indians with lots of gold and silver in additonal to wealthy mines. This led to settlers who were set on exploting the mineral resources and basically, stealing from and enslaving the natives. Now, I will pause for a moment because it is important to note that in NA the native indans were also slaughtered, enslaved and disregarded because they were inferor and lived on valuable land. I have read a little history on Bolvia which is named after Simon Bolivar who interestingly enough played a huge role in most of the currently establshed countries in SA battles for independence. Once independece was won, Bolivar wanted to create a ¨Grand Colombia¨essentialy another Uinted states of south america but the individual areas fought the effort and eventually formed what we now know as South America...but Boliva still wants back its coastline that Chile won from it some years ago. In fact many Bolvians feel it still belongs to them. So, from what I can tell once the grand colombia fell apart the history of most SA countries has been soiled with corruption, fraud and general mistrust of government. People here are very proud of their individual countries but almost no one totally trusts their gov´t officials. And I am not talking distrust like we have...but on a much greater scale. As shifty as we see our govt, people here have great respect for the integrity of our system and our generally sound political system. Anyway, when I look at the question of why we are so big, powerful and wealthy...I am not sure how to answer (except for the fact we have 15 Trillion in debt). People here work exceptionally hard and in substandard conditions...i don´t think I can say we work harder than them..maybe we work in a different way (smarter?) Anyway, I can only reach the conclusion that our success is somewhat based on our willingness to work together as a united country both in goverent, in business and in life so that we can continue to create an environment where anyone has the possibility of success. I think its a good campfire discussion. Think about it..........

Catch up on Sucre

Ok, so today i forgot my journal and most of notes on what I wanted to write, so instead I'll just give you guys some more stuff on Sucre and my future plans.

Sucre is still wonderful. The people are great and their bicentennial was a real blow out. They have pretty lax standards on fireworks here so we could be much closer etc. One of the nights I found a great little bar where I hung out all night drinking with some of the locals. The bar was tiny and when new people arrived the staff would seat them at any table where there was room, intermingling strangers which was great. I sat at the bar and kind of just watched things. They were doing some flaming shots and the most popular drinks were ordered in what we called supermugs (36oz?) glasses with a tiny spout. They would pour the drink into shot glasses and drink from those. They even did this with the beer.

Yesterday I went to their cemetary which is fairly famous. This is where the latin american dedication to family really hit me. The cemetraty was beautiful, well cared for and it was amazing how many graves/tombs/crypts had fresh flowers on them. I saw very few sites with dead flowers, nearly all looked good and the cemetary crew can't clean out dead flowers becuase most of them were in glass cases with locks on the fronts of the tombs. It looked like the families of took great care of the gravesites. It made me want to visit the grave sites of my forgotten family members and leave some memorabilia.

Most days here, I finish Spanish lessons around noon and start walking downtown. Everyday I try to take a different road, some of which seem to go straight up the mountains. I'll find a lunch spot and then head to a park where I do my homework and enjoy the weather. Most days here have perfect weather..never too hot and never too cold. The night cool off to a perfect temp. They have tons of police and military here but my confidence was shaken when I saw a typical teenager fight (like in high school) in the park that was never broken up...it just went on for about two minutes until they were tired of fighting. I also saw a sweet dog fight today...nothing Michael Vick style just two mutts duking it out in the street..a turf war if you will. One dog had the other pinned down and he was biting the others neck...it was pretty violent, finally the beaten dog ran to the other side of the street, gave a glance back then trotted away to find another corner. However, overall the dogs in the streets are very nice and don't bother people. Speaking of the streets, I find it very interesting that the people of Sucre are very proud of their city and in Bolivia. Not so much with the government but with their heritage. However, no matter how hard the city crew works to keep the parks beautiful, the people think nothing of throwing their trash right on the ground, even though there is a trash can a few steps away.

My spanish is finally starting to turn some corners. I am speaking better in public and comprehending speach a lot better but still a long way to go. Also for those who care to have it, I bought a cell phone today...I am not really sure how to call it from the US but the number I got was 73477897. I plan to use it more in Chile where I will probably buy another SIM chip for a few bucks with a number for santiago where I plan to spend more time. I haven't really needed one so far but wanted to buy one here where they were still pretty cheap b/c I think I'll want it in Santiago to hook up with people. I am in the middle of planning my home stay and teachers there.

I think I have formulated most of my plan for the remainder of my trip. This Friday, I leave for La Paz on an overnight bus, once there I am hopping a flight to Rurrenabauque (sp?) in the Bolivian jungle where I want to take a 3 day jungle boat up the river. Today i am trying to locate anti malarial medicine in Sucre. After the jungle trip, I am going to hit Lake Titicacca, then grab a bus for Cusco where I can see Machu Pichu and do some hiking for a few days. Then it is onward to Chile maybe with a stop along the way but it will be about 30 hours on a bus. I plan to spend 2 to 3 weeks in Chile and then head to bariloche in the patagonia to do some skiing for a week or so then back to Bs As for some last minute night life and finally back to the US. Its a lot but I still have a lot of time.

Thats about it for now. I am doing great. Hope everyone at home is well!

Pierce

Sucre

Before I get into the blog, I want to toss out one piece of savory meat for you all to chew on. I have been doing a little thinking about my plans when I return. I may take advantage of what might be one of my last opportunities and unrestrained freedom to visit my father in Lake Tahoe for a while. This means that I might have to put together a cross country road trip in mid to late August. So, if anyone is driving across country with me and making some stops in Mount Rushmore, the badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier, Canada or others, let me know. We could drive out and you fly back....think about it....think about it....you know who I'm talking about.

I have now been in Sucre for about one week. I must say that I really like this city. It stands in stark contrast to the other places I visited in Bolivia. Its main downtown section is full of beautiful colonial buildings, all whitewashed to perfection. Their bicentenial celebration is the 25 of may (at least sucre's) and the whole town has been spruced up and the gardens are all very green. Its great just to walk down the streets. Most of the building here are classic latin design. I will be walking down the street beside a big building that takes up half a block and someone will open a door to reveal a beautiful interior full of courtyards and gardens. Generally, the center of most buildings here have large central courtyards (some as large as basketball courts)surrounded by balconies where the actual living quarters and rooms/offices are located.

Sucre is also a city of learning. There are lots of schools and in the afternoons the streets fill with students from middle school age to college. They generally congregate in the central plaze where I have enjoyed many afternoon enjoying the sun and the buzz of activity. As economically challenged as Bolivian familes may be, their children always seem to be dressed in spiffy duds and in good spirits. That is of course with the exception of the ultra challenged families. In the central plaza there are young boys called lustrebotas or shoe shine boys. They are relentless at trying to sell you shoe shines for about $0.20 USD. It doesn't matter if you are wearing flip flops, they will try to convince you that you need a shoe shine. Once, one boy has polished your flip flops another will come by to say that he could have done a better job. Its very entertaining. I have gotten to know a few of them and enjoy the conversation. However, their stories are usually very sad. One of the older boys is walking on what at one time was an obviously broken ankle that was never set. He now basially walks on the side of his foot and will never run or walk without a limp again. In states, especially in the cities, one gets used to the homeless in the streets but rarely do you see children in the streets and in such dire circumstances.

The town feels very safe and I have a very nice family with which I stay who live close enough where I can walk to town. They have a very nice home with a dog, cat and a parrot who lives free outside and talks to me when I return home. I have my own bedroom and private bath. The family has husband wife, two sons and a daughter who I can talk with in the mornings and at night. We have done some talking about politics and I'll write more when I am out of Boliva but lets just say that being an American in Sucre is much safer than most of the other large cities at this time. However, its still difficult to blend in. There are not a lot of tourists here and we stick out sorely. Attributes, I have that no one Bolivia has: White, beard, light eyes, tall, oakleys, a nalgene and long (non black) hair. I've only been called a gringo once and I punched him in the nuts.

Yesterday i went to what is one of Sucre's biggest draws. El Parque Crestacicio. Some 20 years ago a cement factory uncovered a giant vertical slab with over 350 sets of perfectly preserved dinosaur foot prints. It was really amazing. Its one thing to see these in pictures but to be in the same place as the prints, you can almost feel the Dino's. This location has the longest set of dinosaur prints in the world at nearly 1/2 kilometer.

Thats enough for today. I have some other deep questions I have been pondering, spurred by my new environment, I'll get into those on the next installment. In the meantime, enjoy summer back home!

P

Warning: Explicit language

The last few days have been amazing. To properly describe the events, some vulgar language will be required. First I want to recap the events since Friday. I take a flight to Salta, meet two friends who came via 22 hour bus from Bs As, depart Salta midnight on Sunday, arrive Villazon Bolivia 7am, depart Villazon 3:30 via train, arrive Uyuni 1:00 am, 9am, awake in Uyuni, arrange Salt Flat tour leaving at noon, return from salt flats at 8pm, 10am Wednesday, depart UYuni arrive in Potosi 3:00pm, arrange mine tour, complete mine tour at 7:30 PM, depart Potosi for Sucre, arrive 10:45 PM, the basic point I am trying to get across is that we have used every minute of every day and even though we ran ourselves ragged and stomped on our cardiovascular system, we saw a lot and had a great time…all of which I will get into below.

I left off the last post with the promise of a recap of the salt flats trip. We were a little late to the game to pick up one of the more common multi day trips into the flats so we were scrambling to find a single day trip. Luckily we found a company that put together a custom tour for us. We and one new travel companion hopped into their vintage 80’s Land Cruiser and headed towards the flats. I also want to mention that it was amazing how many land cruisers were in this town. In fact, every tour vehicle was a land cruiser..probably for their high capacity seating and durability…these things take amazing abuse. I could spend hours talking about these salt flats so I’ll try to keep this to a minimum. Basically, the salt flats in Uyuni are the largest in the world. It is an ancient dried up lake bed and it is as flat as can be. The surface is really salt….I tried it…yup, salty. It is amazing to be in the middle of the flats with white all the way to the horizon then blue sky. It felt like one of the most solitary places in the world. We spent several hours driving around the flats, saw their national park on an island in the flat that was full of huge cacti, drove by an old volcano and finished off the day watching the sun set..it was truly spectacular. One fun thing to do on the flats is take funny pics because the backdrop is nothing but horizon. We took lots of these, jumping, posing etc that you can check out on my picassa site. Now, I should mention that the salt flats were located at about 13,500’ above sea level. I had just acclimated to this acclimated to this altitude.



Next stop was Potosi, the highest fucking city in the world. The bus ride was fucking horrendous. None of the roads were fucking paved. Opening the windows was tough because of the fucking dust. The ride was so fucking rough, it felt like we were in a fucking blender for 6 hours. However, we departed in reasonable spirits and got to see some great scenery. Our main goal here was to get a real deal legit tour of their giant mine. The mine supports the entire town of about 300K. We arrived pretty late so we had to arrange a custom tour with a private tour guide. The tour provided scrub clothes, mining lights and a guide. It was hot in the mine so we also took some water. We first visited the processing plant where workers still work with toxic chemicals like cyanide and wear almost no protections. These are actually the easy jobs though. Our next stop was the actual mine located at just a little over 15K feet above sea level. This is higher than any mountain in the lower 48 states. I was acclimating to the altitude all over again. During the tour we had to crawl, slide, climb and walk for about 3 kilometers. The working conditions were horrendous. They were still working as if it were colonial times…with hammer and chisels. They got their first electric winch last year. The air is thick with metal and rock dust. The life expectancy of a driller in the mine is about 10-15 years after he begins. The longest a mine employee can expect to live is to 50-55 yrs before their lungs crap out. Most start working in the mine when they are 13-14 years old and work for about $8 a day. I have a video posted below. Just so that you get a clearer picture of this proposition I need to list a few details. This wasn’t Disney land folks and this mine was not set up for tours…it was fucking legit. There were many Big Fucking Holes where we could easily slip to our death. The air is already super thin at 15,000 feet and we actually went into a mine where half of the available air is laden with rock, asbestos and metal dust. Our throats felt metallic the entire time and I was definitely light headed. We had to climb down a ladder where the rungs were only secured by single extremely bent nails…the rungs rotated on a pivot if you were not carefully balanced. At one point there was a derailed mine cart and I got to help lift it back onto the tracks.



Anyway, this post is getting way too long. Long story short, that week of travel was like being in a twilight zone. Not only because the thin air made us light headed but because it was really like a foreign world. No heat, dirt roads, people living in shanties, fear of sickness with no hospital and overall shock and awe at the beauty, the horrors and the reality of life in southern Bolivia. I am now in Sucre (about 9K feet) and have lots to tell about it but I’ll save that for next post. I’ll be here for about 2.5 weeks.

Pierce...Out

For those who want to look at my pictures from the slide show above and don't want to wait on the images to cycle:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pierce.plumly/Argentina1?feat=directlink

Day I cant remember right now...but lets call it day from hell

Tonights blog is going to be short (in hindsight it turned out to be very long!)..mostly just to let people know that Bolivi has not swallowed me alive. Based on poor transpo options Chile was cut from the iternary for now. We spent Sat and Sun enjoying Salta in northern Argentina which was a great change from the hustle and bustle of Bs As. Salta is in the foot hills of the Andes at about 3,000 feet above sea level. We enjoyed several street side diners, some good Salta wine and lots of ther famous empanadas. They had a cool cable car ride but two days was more than enough to see the city. There is lots more in the outskirts but we had other ambitions. Sunday night we hopped a night bus leaving at midnight to La Quiaca on the Bolivian border arriving at 7 am. If any of you have ever read the book "Heart of Darkness"....I am begining to make comparisons between his journey and our trip into Bolivia. We can really feel the luxuries falling away. This night began my day of hell (really not that bad...but i like to add drama). Ill start this by saying that Bolivia is much more difficult than Argentia but these things are exatly what makes it so much more beautiful.

Our night bus was not terrible but a definite step down from all the busses in Bs As. I was awoken several times during the night with people who had been issued the same seat as me. The moutain roads became what felt like half asphalt. We arrived at La Quiaca travel weary and tired. La Quiaca was about 20 degrees cooler, located at about 11,000 feet above sea level and just a pimple of a town. We quickly departed the bus station where we had to walk across the river bridge into Bolivia where we were purchasing tickets on a train leaving at 3 for Uniou and taking about 10 hours. We bought the first class tickets because they were still only about 12 us dollars. We now had about 8 hours to burn in La Villazon which as opposed to a pimple was more like a boil. We found a little restraunt and just settled into it as a home base. I cant even begin to explain this town. It seemed like most movement was Bolivianos hauling bags to and from the border. The roads were all dusty and the town was strewen with half finished construction projects. They had no supermarket. I saw a little girl pooping in the street. Stray dogs ran everywhere. There was barely a place to get a cup of coffee more or less food that wouldnt immediately kill a non bacteria resistant stomach....speaking of which the altitude problems were starting to set in. I lived at 6K feet in CO and spent our winter weekends at 9-10K but it didnt make a difference here. My head was pounding, light headed, and very rough in the stomach..lost my appetite and only wanted to sleep but we were stuck at this street side dump with a bathroom that was basically a crapper set on the sidewalk with a a few boards constructed around it. It was an excruciating 8 hours where the sun was too hot and the shade too cold. Our train finally comes in and we board. The night train was probably better than the bus with the exception of the altitude problems. We bumped our way to Uniou and arrived about 1AM. We found our Hotel and settled in for the night...FYI most hotels in the small towns in Bolivia do not heat their rooms...it was a chilly night. Showers only have hot water from 7 to noon and the hot water is realy just a trickle. Its cool...I havnt showered in three days and am fine with it...been wearing the same t shirt for 4 days and no one has noticed yet so I am going to keep that rolling too.

Today, I think I finally aclimatized and we had an amazing 4x4 trip in the salt flats but I am going to save that for another post. Tomorrow we catch a 10am bus to Potosi where we are going to try and get a mine tour and then take a 3 hour taxi to sucre for $5!!! At this point I should be re-entering a little bit of comfort so hopefully internet will be more readily available.

As a closing I want to take a moment (which isnt nearly enough) to describe the Bolivian people. I now have an amazing amount of respect and admiration for them. Mostly uneducated and lacking the opportunites which we have been afforded, they are a very humble, hard working and loving people. One of the biggest things that hit me in comparison to Bs As and Salta was of course the intense poverty but yet, in Bs As we couldnt even sit down to a dinner at one of the best steak houses without beening solicted to buy things. Not once in Bolivia has someone looked at us as a coin machine. They are exceptionally kind, even to the tourists. They care for their children and they are all well behaved. They all seem to walk humbly and quietly through each arduous day. They are all very weathered from the rough environmental and working conditions. They go out of their way to help their neighbors. I find it difficult to haggle over prices here when an extra 0.50 to me means dinner on the table for them. The terrain here is amazingly rugged and extreme. The days in the sun are exceptionally warm and the nights are frightfully cold. The altitude creates an extremely dry environment making farming nearly impossible.

My next post Ill go into the 4x4 salt flats trip and post lots of amazing pictures. I miss all of you back home, and thanks for the comments and e-mail....i cant tell you how much I enjoy getting notes from home.
P

Day 23: Salta

I am sitting in a cafe on Salta's main square waiting for a museum to open next door. We hop a bus for northern chile this afternoon so it might be my last opportunity for a few days to post on here. Salta seems like a nice town. Sadly I think some of the best sight seeing is outside of the city and besides the bus trip, I won't get to see much of this. The trip here was quite nice. The national aeroparque in Bs As was very nice...exceptionally nice. In fact, it was one of the nicer air ports I have had the pleasure of traveling through. The flight was nice and I easily caught a cab into the city. My Hostel did not have Wi Fi which was a disappointment but I did meet a very nice French couple in the kitchen who made me dinner and told me all about their country.

Oh....I almost to tell about our last night in Bs As. We went back to Palermo where we hit up what was supposedly Bs As best restaurant. They served us champagne while we waited for our table. We ordered a nice bottle of wine, an appetizer of sausage and cheese with two of their best cuts of meat for the entree's. This was the Argentine meal I had been looking for. The steak was fantastic and plentiful. I ordered a cut of tenderloin which ended up being the equivalent of 4 fillet mingnon's in the states and the beef was exceptional. We had one of the best dinners in Bs As for the US dollar amount of about $30 per person...hard to beat that. We dined until about 1am, then walked to what turned out to be a very local bar for another drink on an upstairs patio then headed to club 69 around 2 am. The girls had talked me into this club...their main hook was that on Thursdays its Transvestite night...thats right, guys that dress up as girls. The crowd seemed to be mostly straight but the folks who were part of the club gig were easy to spot...one of them touched me with a sweeping graze of their hand while making a peace sign across my chest...I felt dirty the rest of the night. They had one large stage where there was lots of transvestite dancing (they had adopted a 60's decor with peace signs and bright colors) plus some break dancing and they had a stage on wheels that they kept dragging through the middle of the dance floor while transvestites danced on a pole...oh yeah...they were all wearing clothes....I got home around 4 and still made it to my 9:00 final lesson at school which ended up being a private lesson because as I awoke my friend from her slumber around 8:15 she not only answered the door but bolted out of it while mumbling...I think I'm going to be sick.

So, we still have to solidify out plan today but I think the rough out is to catch a 13 hour bus to San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile, stay there one night, then bus it to Bolivia to Uniou where we will see the salt flats for a day then to Potosi then finally to Sucre, hopefully by Wednesday night.

Those of you keeping up with my blog don't need to read further, this is just a rant that I want to be searchable on google and through the blog site to inform people about the first school I chose in Bs As...many folks sign up for this school and pay their tuition in advance and then get trapped. I going to list a bunch of key words and spill my review of the school.

Language school review in Buenos Aires, COINED review, Spanish Schools in Buenos Aires, ELEBAIRES, spanish teachers, spanish school review, COINED spanish classes, COINED school review

The first school I started at in Buenos Aires was COINED. It was easy to find and in a good location. The staff seemed nice and the school was in a good location. They walked me through the school description, classes have a max of 8 students and average 3-4, 4 hours of classes per day etc etc. I want to be fair and say that the school facilities as well as their accomodations were very nice. The teachers were also nice and very good. However now for the bad things about COINED. First off, classes start about 10-15 minutes late, the 20 minute break goes for about 30 minutes and classes end 5-10 minutes early. Plus the teachers tend to spend about 1/2 per day on cultural stuff like playing Tango music. So, your 4 hours of classes are more like 3 hours. Second, my class was packed with 8 students..the max and I had very little opportunity to actually speak and was not learning very quickly. Plus a lot of the students speak portugues from Brazil and are still considered beginners but they are on a whole different level. The books were not very good and most of the work we did was on photocopied papers. We also had a holiday week for my second week where the school was closed on Friday. They advertise their classes as 20 classes per week for a set price. However on these holiday weeks, they charge the same price and do not allow you a rebate or the opportunity to make up the missed day. basically charging the same price for 16 classes that should have been 20. Plus, when they charge you, they don't set their prices in pesos, they set it in USD's, then convert the price to Peso's (at an exchange rate that was ALWAYS about 3% higher than the actual rate) and charge you in Peso's...i felt this was a rip off b/c the dollar has been continually strengthening. The worst part is that I talked to the staff about all of these things and the basic conclusion that I reached was that after the school has you signed up (they charge a $65 sign up fee) they don't care. They kept pointing to the fine print in their contract. They could care less about the learning experience, they only wanted to be paid and to maximize their profits. I watched one of the staff, yell at other students...the student said I don't think you understand customer service, the staff replied "I know customer service, I worked in the states for 5 years." I then spoke up and said "In the states the customer is always right." Anyway, they didn't care. They don't want you to learn because they want you to keep getting classes. Our new school ELEBaires did not charge a sign up fee, they discount holiday weeks, they charged us about half as much and I had semi-private lessons (2 students, 1 teacher) for 2 hours a day. The staff was so much nicer and instead of asking us everyday about payments, they asked us about what we learned. To anyone looking for schools, pick one that cares about the learning experience first. Just like we say in the states, if you take care of the customer, in the end your business will succeed.

Off to Bolivia and Chile, Pierce

Day 19: Success

Good news is that I have successfully retrieved both my passport and approved visa from the Bolivian consulate. I arrived today at the same time as yesterday, waited 20 minutes in the waiting room with a dozen other people, none of which had any idea who was first or last until the same woman came and pointed at me. She then pulled my paperwork out of the exact same pile she put it in yesterday, walked it around the corner came back and I had an approved visa. I have no idea why they couldn't have done that yesterday but anyway its done, it looks like I am approved to visit Boliva for 90 day segments for up to 5 years. I have already contacted a teacher in Sucre who will give me lessons for $3 per hour and she will supply me with a room in her house with full room and board for an additional $6 per day...now thats cheap living.

As for the spanish learning, its tough going. Being an engineer I feel I am too logical and always trying to map the two languages together which is nearly impossible. I am trying to break my mind free of its current conception of language understanding so I can weave a new language into the mix...its tough. In Spanish the verbs are very difficult and the word order is backwards from ours in many circumstances...for example...we would say "I bought it for him" in Spanish you essentially say "him it I bought".

Staying in tonight to study and make more flash cards!

P

Day 18: Catch up

Wow, has it already been 18 days? Time was creeping by at first, now it is flying. I did not go to Uruguay this weekend. I wanted to use the weekend to see some more of Bs As before I leave and I will try to catch Motevideo on the return leg. I spent saturday visiting museums and famous theaters that were both closed for renovations. They were supposed to be complete last year but it seems that all their projects down here go over budget and over schedule. They have a bicentenial next year for which they want to have all their historical landmarks re-made. I did manage to do some shopping for souveneirs and bought a nice shirt for the night clubs. Today, I started with the new school which was fantastic. Its cheaper and the insturction is much better.

On a future plans note. I have been paling around with a wonderful girl from London named Annabell or Bells for short. We are taking our classes together and she decided yesterday that she wanted to go to Boliva with me. I am happy to have a travel partner. Plus, she really helped improve my itnerary. We are going to to grab a Friday 20 hour night bus to Salta, spend the night, see the city, have some famous empanadas, grab another bus for San Pedro de Atacama which is an oasis in the desert in northern chile. I am not sure they even have much electricity there. I was told many places just use candles. Next we will go to Uniou in Southern Boliva to see their famous salt flats (largest in the world), next will be Potosi where we can take a real (and some what dangerous) tour of an operating mine hundred of feet below ground. Finally, we will grab a bus to Sucre where I have set up a private teacher and home stay for the following two weeks. I will also try to hit up Cochabamba and maybe Santa Cruz...but we will see how much time I have their. I am going though an amazing hassle to get a visa so I want to get my moneys worth...and this takes me to my next section....missing american profecciency and efficiency.

Since Boliva/US relations are strained Boliva now requires US citizens to get a visa to visit their country. Basically, this is just a monetary and paperwork nightmare. Today, I spent 3 hours and $135 fumbling through their process. I walk into the consulate to find a huge hallway filled with people...all very short people. I am one of two anglo's, we make eye contact and each breathe a slight sigh of relief. I start standing in what seems like a line but people keep telling me that this is not the end of the line....to me it just looked like a hallway full of people. So I decide to push my way around (very easy because I am a giant) and at least see where these imaginary lines go. I finally find the visa line which to my surprise is short. I stand in a bunch of people (no process) until a lady points at me. She explains roughly that I need two pictures, my vaccination card, $135, a credit card, a passport, a hotel reservation and a travel ticket. I said I didn't have a ticket yet and she said no problem then told me I needed a ticket, I said I didn't have one, she said ok....who knows. Plus, I needed photocopies of all of this. They have a photocopy machine which to my horror was one of the lines I experienced earlier. I waited it out, then went around the corner and purchased some photos, came back handed it all to the same lady after she again pointed at me, took all the info shoved it in an envelope gave me a receipt for the money and said come back tomorrow. Then she was gone. So at this point the Bolvian consulate has my passport which I can hopefully collect tomorrow with a visa. Bolivia better be worth it. I did check some prices and my full and board with a host family will be $6 per day....that is quite the bargain....plus 3 hour bus rides are only like $1.50. The dollar is still king down here.

That is enough rambling for today, I'll write again soon.

Day 15: FUTBOL!!! and San Isidro

Ok, so I hit up another Futbol game...I couldn't help myself. I had so much fun the first time I didn't think I could match it but it turned out to almost be better. I need to set the stage at little. The game was the Boca Juniors vs a club team from Venezuela to decide one of the finalists in the South American cup. It wasn't really a highly anticipated match which was actually a good thing for our safety. I was wearing a newly acquired Boca jersey. We had to buy tickets from a scalper. The people I was with wanted a good time but not too intense so when the scalper offered muy tranquillo seats they jumped on them. We entered the stadium similar to the last game except this time a policia stops me and shoves a gray box in my face. He then mumbles some fast spanish that I didn't understand. Then he made a blowing sound and I realized that he was giving me a breathalizer....I passed. The beard must make me look like a drunk too??? So we get up to our seats and this time I see the bathrooms but I still smell pee everywhere. We had arrived much earlier this time so there were plenty of seats. There was tons of room right behind the goal so picked a spot a little off to one side. There were all of these banners strung both across and up and down the seats but they were just kind of rolled up and laying there. We settled in at one of the many railings throughout the area (just a 3" round tubular bar) and waited for the game to start. All of a sudden drums started beating, the singing started and the area in which we were sitting was stormed by the hard core blue collar crowd that makes Boca famous. They all immediately climbed on top of all the railings using the banners to hold on, and worked hard to unfurl them. They literally ran us off our railing. For the remainder of the game every railing was full of standing people (not even watching the game) balancing only with one hand on a banner that is also being used by people the entire length and height of the stadium, leading the songs, staring down people not singing, waving flags and generally carousing. The singing did not stop the entire game and we basically couldn't see anything on the field because most of our viewing area was blocked by banners and flags. This is where I truly saw the passion of their fans. Everyone there knew the songs..except for us and some people were definitely annoyed with us...if it had been a bigger game, I would have been worried for our safety. We certainly did not match the hard core blue collar motif being displayed in our seating area. We had a blast but in a way I felt very fortunate that we were able to be in that area and have a good experience. Boca won, 3-0 with a bicycle kick goal for #2. After the game, I had a mild heart attack when a rough looking Argentine ran up and grabbed me and started saying things loudly. My friend told after that he said that he was so happy I had chosen Boca...it was a happy garb. It really rounded out the complete Argentina futbol experience.



Last night we took it easy with an all you can eat steak and past dinner for $8!!! Today, was a national holiday so most of the shops were closed. We took a train along the coast to a samll town call San Isidro. It was nice to get out of the city and this particular place was very nice and relaxed. It felt great. We had the intention of catching one more train to the beach but ran out of time and headed back. Tomorrow I might be heading to Uruguay for a weekend jaunt and to see the country. I will be taking a water ferry across the bay for a few hours and just spend one night in Montevideo. I might not take my laptop so it might be a day or two until my next post. For now, I hope the video I embedded works.

Day 13: Tips

I can't believe I have already been here 13 days. Time is now flying. Not much new to report today so I'll just throw a few notes out.

Pollution: We think we have pollution in the states. Bs As is smog central. They have sooo many cars and sooo many buses spewing particulate. You can smell it in the air and there is really no escape. Buildings and ventilation. Unlike the US, Argentina has never experienced great periods of wealth. This means they don't tear much down and rebuild. Most of the buildings in the downtown are decades and centuries old. This means few of them have air circulation systems and rarely AC. Most of the heat is radiant. Rooms get stuffy in a hurry. Plentiful condiments are non existent, they are even stingy with salt. Building and electrical codes are extremely sub standard to home. They just run wires anywhere they want. From rooftops draped down sides of buildings, open junction boxes...lots of fire hazards.

Tomorrow we are going to try and hit up another futbol game so hopefully I'll have more to report.

Day 12: School

Ok, I have not told you all much about my school. I have actually been pretty dissatisfied with my school experience. It has two redeeming features, they have multiple locations and their teachers seem to be really good. Other than that, they load the classes with as many students as possible (maxed out at 8 now), they have no idea of customer service, classes start late, breaks go long and classes end early. They charge per classes by the block of 20 classes per week. This week has a holiday on Friday with no classes yet we are required to pay the same amount like we had 5 days of classes. The worst part is that the administration does not care. They seem to be a business first and educators second. They are not even apologetic about the fact that we are unhappy with the class sizes, class content and schedule adherence. Yesterday I watched one of the office staff yell at one of the other students (friend of mine) saying that "I know what customer service is. I work in states for 5 years and I know how to treat customers. You should not make accusations about this school." I calmly looked up at her and said in my strongest American accent (just normal talking)...in the States the customer is always right. Anyone googling this blog who wants advice on Spanish schools, please PM me and do not use COINED. There are much better, smaller schools that give more personal attention and are concerned about students learning. Today, I made a change. We found another school very nearby that is much cheaper and I will be in a class size of 2 people. The school staff is exceptionally nice.

Thats really it for today. Sorry for the rant but I am much happier about starting a new class next week and really ramping up my learning. Also, just a side note but if you google moth balls in urinals...my blog comes up....I like it.

Day 11: Moth balls again

Ok, so I'll get to some new events in a bit but first I need to expand on the moth ball situation in the urinals here. I have found them to be quite entertaining. After about a liter of beer its a fun game to pee on them really hard and try to walk them up back of the urinal....its like one of those carnival games where you hammer the ball up the pole but in this case its a moth ball up the back of the urinal. Last night I held off on the urge for a bit just to see if I get some more pressure.

Anyway, on with new events. Tonight we went to a drum exposition. At first I had some doubts about this endeavor. I envisioned a field full of pot smokers with dreads, swaying in place around a drum circle. Turns out I was pretty close but my hippie genes came out and I really enjoyed the night. Basically, there was a huge open courtyard with a large stage where they set up about 2 dozen drums and other instruments. They had a maestro to direct the rytmns and they really got the crowd going. I enjoyed the experience. It is also interesting that I have noticed that people here are very short. I am about 5-10 or so and I am really tall down here...like exceptionally tall. I can see over most people at the concerts. Its nice.

I was also happy today to finally find a friend who recommended that I not go to Iguazo Falls on the Brazil/Argentina boarder. Its an amazingly large and powerful series of something like 400 waterfalls....probably bigger than Niagara. However, its nothing but a huge tourist attraction. EVERYONE goes and I wasn't really excited to go someplace that everyone goes. I am thinking about trading off the $600 that it would cost me to maybe do Boliva instead. Finally I talked to a nice girl from Brazil who suggested I not go so my decision is made...no Iquazo.

Thats all for today...not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow but I'll come up with something.

Day 10: San Telmo

Last night ended up being very laid back. I went out around midnight and wandered teh streets a little. It became to clear to me that this is simply a culture of eating late and going out late. Even the older couples were just finishing dinner around midnight. I settled on a bar called 36 Billares (36 pool tables) who had a band starting at 1. I had a liter of beer and walked home.

Today, I headed to the historic barrio (neighborhood)of San Telmo. It is full of cobbled streets, street markets, fabulous restaurants and a vibrant art and Tango scene. I enjoyed a street Tango show that was amazing and picked up several souvenirs from the local vendors. I am enjoying walking around alone. I take in a lot more of the city. I stumbled upon a museum/unique site in San Telmo called Zanjon de Granados which was supposedly the center of the colonial settlement in Bs As. They had only recently discovered the site and a network of underground tunnels. The building (originally a mansion) had been meticulously restored. It was a neat place to see.

Day 9: Discoteca Dissapointment

This entire night turned out to be a pretty big disappointment. We started with a little pre game at our dorm. We caught cabs to the discoteca around 1am (that is when it opens) and arrived at Club Pacha around 1:15. On our walk through the parking lot I noted an awful lot of tour busses and what looked like very young kids. We reached the door and were immediately turned away. The club had been reserved for a giant party for 15 year olds. Some of our girls had to go in to use the bathroom and they reported that they were indeed serving milk. We were forced to walk to the only other club in the area called Jet. We had 5 guys in the group, all of the girls got in for free and the guys had to pay about $17 each but the five of us got two bottles of champagne. Overall, I thought the club was nothing special. The music was too loud and the lights were obnoxious...i really felt like I was stoned due to the LED strobe light effects...it wasn't really fun. Or...maybe I'm just getting old...whatever. I caught a cab back to the dorm around 4:30 am and my roommates did not get back till about 8am....crazy.

Today, I took the subway to one of the more ritzy barrios in Bs As called Palermo. This was a great place to explore. Tons of shopping along the streets, lots of street art, lots of bars, lots of street side dining and tons of markets set up in the street where local artists were selling their wares. I probably walked about 3-4 miles exploring the neighborhoods. This was truly where many of the beautiful people of Bs As reside. This is a great motivator to study my Spanish! Another interesting fact was that in some of the busier areas, they had stores that were bars by night and during the day, they sold clothes and other things. They roll out clothing racks, through table clothes over the pool tables and sell merchandise right next to the bar. You could drink and shop all day. It made me wonder why they don't do this in Georgetown. These places were selling food, drinks and merchandise...what a great way to leverage the prime retail space. Thats it for today, tonight I might find a local bar and tomorrow is reserved for exploring the San Telmo barrio and doing laundry.

Some of you may have noticed the slide show I put up, I'll update this about once a week. Right now the pics are pretty bad but i'm working on it.

Day 8: Traffic

Finally, I have a fairly uneventful day to write about. Really, nothing much to write home about today. The first week of classes are complete and I have a better understanding of the language but still a lot of work to do. After classes we seung by one of the "party" hostels just to take a look. Millhouse was big, with lots of amenities and definitely looked like a party hostel. They had their own bar and there was at least one person passed out in every room, even the common areas. It really looked like some people might not ever leave the hostel. It wasn't for me...maybe for one night just for fun. I think I should take a moment to note that Bs As is an amazing city with an amazingly unique culture and language. There are many things about this city that are found no where else in the world. The Argentinians are very proud of their city. My factoid for the day. In the states we take for granted that pedestrians have the right of way. Not in Bs As. Cars do not stop for people and you have to always be alert because they go fast and dart in and out of traffic. There is one street that is so wide it usually takes two cycles of the walk lights to cross all 20 or so lanes. The good thing is that nearly all of their streets are one way so its easier to look for traffic but they drive crazy down here. Taxi's are super cheap so we take them anywhere the subway or our feet cant go.