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