coming home, and a summary

i have never been so grateful to come home as i was yesterday. cheryl's, kt's and smutty's parents came to pick them up, while andy drove from buffalo to pick me up. i then went out for a solid korean meal with andy and my dad. awesome! :D

coming home is both scary and exciting all at once. we are all beginning new lives, and as of friday, ending our school careers. kavitha knows what is going on next with her job and new place, but cheryl, smutty and i are all switching careers and all need to figure it out, which should be interesting! it will be neat to see what we are doing in two months time.

so as probably my last post in this blog, i wanted to summarize a couple of things i learned on this trip, things i am grateful for, as well as some of the things that i deemed highlights!

things that i learned from this trip:

1) injustice of colonialism - the story of south america is spanish colonialism, save for brazil. tons of indigenous tribes were wiped out from disease as well as violence, and it wasn't until they gained independence over the past 200 or so odd years. but with the spread of catholicism and the spanish language and customs, did they really gain any independence whatsoever, save for administrative functions? hmmm.

2) american style litigation seems to be what motivates people to put warnings (i.e. coffee is hot! warning, there is a hole here!) on things in north america. it seems that where there are not large sums of money involved, it's up to you to exercise caution.

3) boxer briefs - as we learned from keith, boxers are hard to come by in every part of the world save for north america. oy!

4) processed food - is virtually non-existent in the countries we visited. and boy was it refreshing! the economics of buying local food were a lot more balanced, i.e. not perverted by crazy subsidies. and the food, particularly in peru, was amazing!

5) travelling as a luxury - travelling for prolonged periods of time is a luxury that it seems only residents of G7 countries can afford.

6) you can only be helped if you help yourself first - camilla raised a good point that in the slums, that they can help the residents as much as they can, but some people are too lazy to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty and don't care to get out of it.

7) purchasing only well-constructed things - i have learned more and more that it is better to purchase high quality items rather than things that will break quickly. things especially where people have taken pride in making then item. on a similar note, driving down prices as much as possible is a bad thing to do - cheating people for less than they're worth is not worth it because it has to compensate somewhere.

8) being openminded - i have learned that with many things in travel, it is important to go in with no expectations whatsoever and you just have to go with the flow. especially with language differences, listening first instead of bombarding people with questions is key.

9) vegetarian, vegan, no-cholesterol, gluten free, sugar-free, etc. seem virtually non-existent in other parts of the world where they have a stronger connection to their food.

10) the desire of learning Spanish was really strong for me throughout the trip. i felt as though i would have gotten a lot more out of it!

11) my travel buddies - i was glad to learn so much more about arti, bossi, cheryl, kavitha and keith! they were all so fun to travel with.


in terms of things i have been extremely grateful for since coming home:
- very little pollution
- consistently hot, powerful showers (although currently, our hot water heater broke - i wonder if i cursed it by coming home)
- the support of my family and friends
- central heating - i can't believe how warm we are in the wintertime and how much we take it for granted.
- clean clothing
- fast internet

and lastly, my favourite and least favourite parts of the trip:

favourite:

1) raro raraku in easter island
- the mountain where all the moais were made were totally neat. i had been waiting to see that for many, many years! i was giddy like a kid in a candy store, seeing all the moais!

2) the slums in rio
- this was an extremely eye opening experience that i doubt i would have seen without knowing camilla. props!!!

3) salar de uyuni, bolivia
- the endless expanse of white was breathtaking!! it was almost like being at one of the poles.

4) eating trout in lake titicaca
- i have never had such fresh fish before. YUM!

least favourite:

1) altitude sickness and cold in laguna colorada in bolivia
- talk about wanting to get out of somewhere ASAP. major headaches, nausea, and heart palpitations.

2) cholito wrestling
- probably one of the least humane things i have ever beared witness to. oy.

3) santiago in general
- was smoggy, smoky and unexciting.

and lastly, to all the readers of the blog, thanks for reading!!

the last day - preparing for legitimacy

as can be expected, the past two days have been a bit boring as we prepare to return to canada. the past 4 days we have been lucky enough to have a room to ourselves, save for one dude who kept emphasizing that he was a MEDICAL STUDENT. now, typically when you go on trips, various forms and fellow travellers ask you what your profession is, and the stock answer, no matter what kind of student you are, is that you are just a student. not this guy. at every chance possible, he emphasized his med student credentials. it must have been an inferiority complex, because he was both of shorter stature (napoleon complex perhaps) and we later found out that he was going to med school in the caribbean. snap!

as part of preparing to go home, four of us girls did our eyebrows in the bathroom. if i could give a relevant analogy, i would say our eyebrows have been like the rainforest taking over macchu picchu. so, be glad when you see us looking semi-normal tomorrow!

this morning, we also took part in some other aesthetic rituals. there is a salon across the street from the hostel that had manicure and pedicures for 20 soles, and haircuts for 15 soles. keith got his haircut, while the girls all got manicures and pedicures. we all felt sorry for the manicurist/pedicurists! eeeeeek! however, we are happy to say that we are nearly 2 LEGIT 2 QUIT!

for lunch, we returned to our favourite restaurant in lima - san antonio. it is a bakery that serves AMAZING sandwiches and desserts. yesterday i had one with chopped porcini mushrooms. today i had a sandwich called the chicharron, that had roasted pork, creole sauce, onions, and yam, and it was absolutely out of this world. unfortunately, today there was a lineup, so here we were starving to death and getting really cranky because we couldn't eat. it was worth every minute!!! the bakery also has an amazing apple peach strudel sprinkled with sugar - also out of this world!

in our last couple of days we have also been doing a bit of shopping. yesterday we went to lima's largest mall, jockey plaza, and picked up a couple things. bossi picked up a really cool pair of trouser overalls, and i found a cute vest. poor keith really has been patient with all the girliness!

we also hit up the touristy markets where kavitha picked up a couple things for friends, as well as a great painting for her new condo. i found a really awesome painting that was reminiscent of ezra jack keats, one of my favourite childhood author/illustrators. it was of a dark skinned woman carrying a fish. and i also picked up a ridiculously furry alpaca hat.

tonight we are off to the airport and then tomorrow morning we will be back home again. keith will be on his own for the next two days - wowza! i will of course, post once more with a summary of the highlights of the trip because as you know, i'm a giant nerd. a bientot!

lima at a leisurely pace

ever since coming into lima, we have been taking it at an extremely slow pace. after we settled into the flying dog hostel, we went to larco mar, a mall right at the ocean front that was built into a cliff. it was a bit touristy, but we had some hearty food court food for lunch - i ended up having pork brochettes, deep fried banana, and some fries, which were pretty good albeit a bit heavy! smutty and i also tried a - gasp - burger king cono - it was surprisingly better than the mcdonald's vanilla cono!!!!

on that note, that same day, we went back to mcdonald's only to find that THEY DO NOT HAVE DULCE DE LECHE CONOS IN PERU. WHAAAAAAAAT!!!!! most of us had not had one since may 12, and were shocked! cheryl on the other hand, was ecstatic to see that the mcdonald's still served the hybrid chocolate vanilla cone as they had phased out chocolate in canada.

on yet another dulce de leche note, they do not call dulce de leche by its proper name in peru. they call it manjarblanco! and on yet another note, yesterday kavitha and i had an intense craving for churros (if you recall from earlier posts, deep fried dough covered in sugar) and were referred to a restaurant called manolo's - they had churros filled with vanilla, chocolate, or dulce de leche. i, of course, ordered the dulce de leche one, and it was seriously the most delicious/heart attack/diabetes inducing food ever. SUPER DELICIOUS!

we have also been able to check out the chinatown in lima - apparently the biggest in south america. my sister had forwarded me an article about lima in the new york times, and it referred us to a restaurant called salon capon - it was surprisingly good! although only the owners were chinese and the wait staff were all peruvian, it took me a really long and hard time to order roasted duck and noodles, usually something easy for me to do in toronto. also, looking around in chinatown, there were maybe 3 chinese people max that we saw on the main street. super strange! it was almost like the chinatown in havana.

another piece of crazy news - we ended up going out last night!!! WHAT!!!! of the 55 days kavitha and i have travelled, she has gone out 3 times, and this is only my second time. we ended up going to a terrible club an dancing awkwardly! (it was very salsa focused). however, what came out of the night were a couple new dance moves - the q-tip, deodorant application, face washing, and hair washing.

breakfast at the hostel has also been great - they give us meal tickets to the restaurant under the hostel, which includes either fruit salad/juice/coffee, or eggs/toast/juice/coffee, which is very solid.

keith, kavitha and i also did some laundry - totally solid!!! ahhh. our last load before we head home. on a laundry related note, i lost my favourite marc atlan heart t-shirt while i was in aguascalientes. NOOOOOOOOO!!! thankfully i know where to order another one.

we also checked out a graffiti sticker exhibit called stick it, which was very neat. i have seen graffiti exhibits, but never a graffiti sticker exhibit. very cool!

lastly this morning we woke up a bit late and walked to barranco, the adjacent municipality. they had a bunch of cute restaurants and art galleries and one boutique that had some awesome peruvian designed clothing. we still need to figure out what we are doing tonight!

2 more days until home!

cusco, santa teresa, santa maria, aguascalientes, macchu picchu

first of all, apologies for being delinquent in writing. our hiking trip took place in some really random places in peru that had no internet access, but we are back! not to worry!

cuzco was very touristy. we did not see much of it as it was the jump off point for macchu picchu, but it turns out our room $15 a night rather than 15 soles a night - none of us were upset because the showers were even worth it. they were super hot, and super powerful! whoaaaaa! we were able to have the breakfast for the first time this morning, and that was great too - it was a buffet of fresh papaya juice, pineapple, watermelon, ham, cheese, toast, olives, eggs (if you so desired) and cereal. fantastisch!!! the hotel was called hotel inka{s dream, if you are so inclined to know!

in cuzco we ate at a nearby place that served mexican food, i had an alpaca llama that was not bad. in terms of alpaca, i would quote cheryl and say that i am now over it.

we signed up for a 3 day, 2 night trek which ended up being probably one of the most brutal side trips yet in terms of being physically demanding. the first day, we had to wake up at 2:30AM, then had to take a bus with our guides, henri and marie (they were peruvian) over to santa teresa, a small town at 1800m elevation. it was hard to sleep because of all the twists and turns and i kept running my head into kavitha{s shoulder and keith{s shoulder. i was lucky enough to sit in the middle seat with no head rest - good times. me and kavitha were so close she told me that she liked the smell of my new pert plus olive oil shampoo. sheesh! also, around 4AM, the driver decided that he wanted to blast some crazy modern peruvian music. for the unawake, we were not so happy about that!

we got to santa teresa around 7AM, where we had breakfast before embarking on the most strenuous hike of all time (even a bit more epic than the one liz and i did in maui in an extinct volcano). because the inca trail needs to be booked 8-12 months in advance, we took another hike that was on the "worker{s trail" - much more strenuous. first of all, it was RIDICULOUSLY sunny, with no clouds in the sky - about 35C. second of all, we were hiking up gynormous mountains, on very steep, uneven and rocky trails. i was not happy, seeing that i am afraid of heights. poor cheryl had been sick for the past couple of days with a stomach bug, so she was in rough shape. unfortunately, she had to leave halfway through while the rest of us soldiered on. we hiked for about 4 hours with all of our clothing and snacks (i was also lucky because henri offered to hold all my snacks! woooot!) but we took a lot of breaks and somehow made it to lunch at a really strange shanty house, where we ate sopa de la minuta, guacamole and spaghetti. at that point, we were ready to eat anything!! we were also insanely insanely sweaty. wow!

after lunch, it was flatter terrain, and a lot more manageable - we also crossed the river in a rickety cable car box that was shoved across a cable over the river - it was a bit dicey! we also walked into a swamp, where bossi got her foot soaked! lovely! at the end of the hike was a random hot spring that emerged in the river like a strange disneyland park - i was glad to soak my tired (and lazy) bones. that night, we were TOAST and ready to get to bed after our terrible chicken dinner.

i should also mention that the mosquitoes were out in full force!!!! my butt was COVERED in mosquito bites (from the hot spring), while everyone elses arms and legs were covered in what looked like chicken pox. we will definitely be a bit grizzled coming home.

the next morning in santa teresa, we got up at a more manageable 8:15AM to go on a more flat hike. we walked beside the river, which was pleasant, however after lunch it got dicey. we had to hike to aguascalientes on RAILROAD tracks, which really was not great seeing that it was made of fairly large rocks that you could easily twist your ankle on. compound that with the fact that it started raining and it was drizzly. poor KT and KD had bad shoes which made it even more unpleasant. because the travel agency had told us it would be hot and dry, we did not bring rain gear - so it was so cold and rainy that you could see your breath, but we were hiking in soaking wet t-shirts! bad news!!!!

when we finally did make it to aguascalientes, we changed into dry clothes, and rested. however, just before we were going to head out - ALL THE POWER IN THE CITY WENT OUT! AHHHHHHHH! as you can imagine, we were not amused. we ended up hiking down a dark hill to find the restaurant we were supposed to eat at. lovely! we of course, ended up having a romantic candlelight dinner. :S

the next morning, keith and smutty woke up at 400 to hike up to macchu picchu, a 1.5 hour straight up hike. cheryl, kavitha and i opted for the $7 bus, and boy am i glad we did that. macchu picchu was great!! it was how i imagined it, and our guide celio was great in explaining incan history. it is the only incan settlement that was not destructed by the spanish! the incans who lived there fled after they heard the spanish were attacking other incan settlements, and then the semi-tropical forest eventually took it over, so it was hard to see - no one found it for 300 years!

we spent the day there, and then in the afternoon headed back to cusco on a squishy perurail train and then buses lucy (a bus company) and got in around 10pm.

a godsend over the past 3 days was the hiking sticks that me and kavitha rented, for $2 a day. i cannot even imagine doing the hike without them!!! unfortunately, because we got back to cusco too late we could not return them - so now we have two leki hiking sticks!!! DOH! at least they were a bargoon, but i feel bad about keeping them. :S

another funny thing we noticed in peru is the usage of llamas as lawnmowers! they are great because they trim the grass when they eat, and fertilize when they defecate! they were used at macchu picchu as well as a private school we saw in arequipa.

this morning we took a plane to lima - finally we are here! there is not much to do here, so we will see how we will pass the time. AHHH! excited to go home!

arequipa.... the final frontier

yesterday we went to a convent that was an enclosed city - it was called the santa catalina monastery. pretty much it was a bunch of rich kids who were shipped off to peru by their parents to become nuns. apparently, there was one that escaped the monastery in james bond fashion, burning a pig in her bed and then escaping in her own coffin. WHAAAAAAAT! the nuns had their own private rooms, as well as nannies and a whole bunch of personal belongings, not to mention their own BALLIN´ kitchens. craziness!

at lunch, we went to a rooftop terrace type place in the plaza de armas (the main square). i ordered guinea pig, to the horror of our table and those surrounding it. the guinea pig came deep fried in its entirety, including its paws and head. poor kavitha and cheryl were mortified. the guinea pig was a bit difficult to eat as it was mostly bone, but it tasted like a cross between chicken and pork.

in the afternoon we kind of pfaffed about, and we had a dinner in an alleyway! cheryl ordered the area´s signature dish, the stuffed pepper, while i got a shrimp fried rice (the regional shrimps are TINY and not very good, as i found out), keith got a ceviche mixto, kavitha got a crab shell stuffed with shrimp, and smutty didn´t eat.

the next morning, cheryl, keith and bossi went to go white water rafting on the rio chile, while kavitha and i did a city tour with carlos, the guy who drove us from the bus station. we found out from maria, the owner of the hostel that we were staying at, that we were ripped off for our tickets. we paid 65 soles, instead of the 40 soles price that was listed on the ticket. WHAAA! she suggested that we report it to the tourist police, which we did. an investigator came with us to talk to the travel agency that ripped us off, eco tours, and the guy was totally unreceptive, going to talk on his cell phone. ugggggh! in the end, instead of 25 soles back, he made us an offer of 7.5 soles so we wouldn´t report him. we decided to report him instead to the consumer protection bureau instead. ah! scandals! in the end, this ended up being the agency´s first complaint (if they weren´t bad, i can only imagine how the other agencies are!), so probably not much will happen. however, it was a lesson in the importance of transparency. arrrgh!

at night we took a bus to cusco, where we are right now. it was surprisingly comfortable, save for the periodic screaming and kicking from the child behind me, as well as the fact that they jacked up the heat really high! however, i would rather that than the ridiculous cold that we encountered in uyuni - holy schmoly!

we are going to book a tour to macchu picchu/hiking for tomorrow - we are staying in a really nice hotel for 15 soles a night - the rooms are actually heated, there is a breakfast buffet, there is warm water and water pressure, and comfy beds. i can´t wait!

puno and arequipa

since our last blog update, we have eaten a lot of really good food (FINALLY!!!!!!) and seen some great sites. first of all, lake titicaca (pronounced teeteekaka.... it looks pretty obscene i know) has been quite good to us in terms of food. there is some amazing trout and kingfish coming from the lake. wowza!!! we had some amazing grilled fish that was out of this world, sometimes more than once a day. and for less than $6 too! DEALZZZ AND BARGOONS.

another great thing that we found in puno specifically was the availability of special bargoon set meals called ¨tourist meals¨, that include an appetizer (usually soup, salad, or an omelette), a main (usually trout, beefsteak, chicken, spaghetti or alpaca), and a dessert or beverage. all of these were for $18 sols, or $6! to reiterate, DEALZZZZ AND BARGOOONS!!!! we took full advantage of these meals. almost too much so.

by the way, i might add that the other day i had an alpaca tourist meal, all while wearing an alpaca sweater!! is that wrong? hmmm.

just some background on lake titicaca - it is on the border between bolivia and peru and it is allegedly the highest navigable lake in the world. it is all freshwater, and we found out on the tour the other day that they do not use the water at all for irrigation because it is evaporating - it sounds weird that a lake is evaporating, but this is allegedly the case. another thing i find so amazing about the lake is its pristine condition - people are quite respectful of other people who use the lakes resources, such as the uros people who need to drink it. apparently only the water outside of puno, or 0.02% of the lake, is polluted (with algae). would you ever see that in the great lakes? not so much.

yesterday we went on a day tour of the uros islands and taquile island. the uros islands are very unique in the sense that they are manmade out of reeds, or totoras, and float on the roots of the reeds. the uros people, who are direct descendants of the incans, have been maintaining these islands for thousands of years. they have to rebuild the islands every several weeks and spend lots of time doing so. they also subsist on handicrafts and fishing. everything on the islands (save for a couple things such as the solar panels) are made out of reeds - chairs, boats, houses, kitchens, tables, beds. truly amazing! the reed boat that we sat in was slightly more modern than their ancestors - on the bottom they placed 2500 plastic bottles for flotation. if only the big beverages companies could see that! muy reusing!

another great thing about them is that if they don´t like their neighbours, they can pull up their anchors and move somewhere else. pretty convenient!

after the uros islands, we sat in the boat for 2.5 hours to get to taquile island. taquile island is the textile island and the island is known for its specific style of dress, which is very spanish (i think the guide said it was the catalan style.... liz help me out here with your spanish prowess!) lots of big belts and pouffy pompom hats. the belts were unique in the sense that they are constantly expanded with stories - for example, where you were born, how many sheep you own, what you do for a living. super neat! also, when people get married on the island, they cut the hair of the bride and sew it into a belt for the groom! and, men wear hats that indicate their marital status. pretty interesting stuff.

the place where we were staying, the q´orikhana inn (spelling is completely botched) was referred to us by one of the hustling men at the puno bus station, which to our surprise, was named oscar. after hearing his name, we had a pretty good feeling about him! he got us a significant discount on the place (we paid $15 soles a night, or $5 a night, instead of $30 soles a night). he also guaranteed us hot showers, which were kind of sporadic.

also, the rooms were a bit cold. kavitha and i asked for ¨el fuego¨, which means both heat and fire. little did we know that we would get both! the inn proprietor came into our room, poured a liquid on to the ground, then threw a match on it. our room was literally on fire! EEEK! kavitha moved away all the wooden furniture, the room warmed up, and gradually the liquid burned away - thankfully the inn did not burn down. the same exercise was repeated in smutty, cheryl and keith´s room, to their shock!

this morning, we took a bus to arequipa (sold to us for a bargoon by oscar, woooot!), which was a very windy and bumpy route. to add to that, there was a peruvian man hustling what seemed like a south american herbalife collection. at the front of the bus, right in our ears, he yelled about cleaning your system, the prostate, ovaries, red meat, alcohol, fried foods, caffeine overdoses and the like, all in the name of selling a 7-herb tea. then, he brought out a smelly ointment and yelled about it for another 20 minutes. we were not amused!!!! thankfully, we had some saltenas and croissants to keep us quiet, that KT, KD and i picked up in the morning at a bakery called rico-pan in puno.

as we get further and further into peru, it is getting less indigenous and more spanish. we even saw churros here in arequipa! we will miss the cute chubby and red cheeked indigenous children. sigh!

tomorrow..... we are not sure what to do yet in arequipa. we shall see!

la paz, puno

la paz has been quite relaxing compared to the previous days in the cold and on the 4x4. as cheryl says, it is nice to feel human again! we got to run a bunch of errands, eat some good and highly inexpensive food, do some el cheapo souvenir shopping, and had some time to ourselves.

the adventure brew hostel was great! in the morning we had free all-you-can-eat pancake breakfasts accompanied by jam and you guessed it, DULCE DE LECHE. you could also special order breakfasts for about $1-$2 - bargoons. the woman who made all the meals was super nice.

i think one of the most traumatizing things that we have done so far on this trip is go to cholitos wrestling, which is essentially midget wrestling (sometimes with women). we were told that it was a must see! i beg to differ, after seeing it. we got so called VIP seats at the front, right by the ring - which was entertaining at first, as there were a lot of hilarious male wrestlers (not midgets) who wore nacho libre type masks and wrestled. they were very choreographed. however, when it came time to the women - that is when it got really scary. one lady, dressed in ripped spandex, was INSANE. she wrestled with a reporter, who clearly had not done it before and was left crying. then, she threw another wrestler pretty much into me and kavitha, then ripped into a bottle of orange pop and sprayed it all over keith. keith, the lucky man he is, ended up with one of the wrestlers on his lap during the evening (just before he was sprayed with orange pop by the crazy spandex woman) and of course, the only wrestler that was a midget got insanely injured - we think her neck was broken (and there was some blood! eeek.). :S not good! the night was pretty much over for us then. after this, this is pretty much the first and last time i will ever support anything to do with fighting. oy!

one of the days we were here, we went our separate ways - bossi and cheryl tried food from all the street vendors (ice cream, empenadas, saltenas, sweet empenadas, etc), while kavitha and i hiked up to the top of la paz (we were insanely winded) and then did tons of souvenir shopping - alpaca stuff is super cheap! we cleared one store of all their scarves and an array of mittens. keith ended up taking in a hip hop show (one group was terrible, one was good, he said).

it was also nice to do some laundry - although i had a huge scare when last night, as we were going to leave the next morning, my laundry didn´t come in! AHHHH! thankfully, just as i was about to lose it, the laundry delivery people came in with it, all clean and folded. amazing.

we also went to go see movies on our last night. cheryl and kavitha went to see indiana jones (they said it was so bad it was funny) while smutty, keith and i went to go see street kings (aka reyes de la calle) - it was a bit too violent for me, but i quite enjoyed all the hilarious rapper cameos in it (the game and common, anyone?!?!) and i also finally got a chance to talk to andy on the phone. phew!

strangely enough - we have not seen ONE mcdonalds in bolivia. i think it is great that the country is so patriotic - however i do miss the dulce de leche cone!!! similarly, there seems to be a devotion to the country´s president, evo morales, to the height of fidel and che. if t-shirts and political graffiti are any indication, they love the man. (note also, that he is indigenous, which reflects 60% of the population in bolivia)

this morning we got up to take the bus to puno, in peru. the ride was SIGNIFICANTLY more comfortable than the overnight bus we took to la paz. for one thing the road was not so bumpy, there was some sort of climate control (aka warmth), and our seats could recline at variable heights. however, it was a bit of a gong show at the end when a pan flute band came on board and played in the aisle. with my luck, the band member with significant BO and playing both the pan flute and guitar was right in my face. A-MAZE-ING.

tomorrow we are going to see the uros floating islands. can´t wait!!!

la paz

yesterday, we spent the afternoon in uyuni running various errands, internetting, phoning, having tea, dropping off luggage and the like. unfortunately, due to the weirdness of the ATMs, keith left his mastercard in the machine. ouch! foiled! thankfully he was able to cancel it (somewhat dubiously). i was able to talk to andy for 5 minutes - who knew that phone calls would be so pricey in the middle of nowhere, bolivia? actually, that makes sense. :P

we decided to take an overnight bus to la paz, and 11 hour journey costing 80 bolivianos (just over $10). we went with a company called touristicos omar, and opted for the semi-cama (3/4 reclining) option. in my mind, i thought it would be like the buses that kavitha and i took in argentina and brazil, which were very new, climate controlled, and had tvs and bathrooms. or at least like a greyhound bus. when the bus rolled up an hour late, we found a bus from the 1960s or 70s, with heavy duty wheels that were about 5 feet high. we had to tag our own bags in a giant suffocating cloud of diesel smoke before boarding the bus, which was dimly lit. there were alpaca blankets draped over our seats, and NO BATHROOMS. oy! the chairs reclined either fully, or not at all, and the bus was cramped and there was absolutely NO HEAT. i was sitting under a vent that cold air constantly blew out of, with water dripping on to the aisle beside me. kavitha took a gravel and was able to sleep, but me, cheryl, bossi and keith did not have much luck in that department!

when the bus got rolling, the only thing i could compare it to was being in an out of control massage chair in a tank with bullets constantly being fired outside. bolivian roads are not exactly in the best shape, so all the seats on the bus vibrated like nobody's business. it was not easy to sleep!

then, around midnight, we made our first unannounced rest stop. the windows were frosted over so we could not see outside. since my bladder was about to explode, i ran up to the driver and yelled "DONDE ESTA EL BANO?" and he pointed into a sketchy bar/restaurant. i was so disoriented and desperate to find a bathroom that i ran outside and into the bar like a madwoman. when i stepped in i got the strangest looks ever! thankfully, the owner of the restaurant was very helpful and directed me to the bathroom. many other passengers followed suit.

the rest of the bus ride was a bit less rickety,and we got in this morning around 8AM. the hostel we are staying at, the adventure brew hostel (recommended by kavitha's friend who also made the awesome BA hostel recommendation, props!!!) has been great! we had a solid breakfast (eggs, strange bacon, coffee/tea, and toast( for about $2 each, and then a pretty decent lunch (i had a vegetable soup and a banana juice for about $2). tonight - no plans yet. but there is a bar on the top floor of our hostel that has nintendo tournaments. random!

ever since leaving easter island, it has been insanely dry. we have been moisturizing with nivea (the heavy dark blue kind) and glysomed like nobody's business. la paz is definitely not as bad as the desert, which is a welcome relief. fortunately, i was also able to pick up some chapstick. chaps brand peach chapstick. fantastic!

lastly, being away for almost 2 months now, what is going on in the music world? any new artists i should know about?

bolivia - holy schmoly!

the past three days have seen their share of highs and lows. i will, as per usual, document everything in as fine detail as possible!

we left san pedro de atacama at 8AM in the morning, changed some money into bolivia bolivianos, and then took a van over to the edge of the chilean border. the driver dropped us off there, and we went through customs to get an exit stamp. while we were waiting for that, there were two dogs that were fighting and running into everyone in line. super scary! meanwhile keith was pretty much playing with them. on yet another scary note, when it was our turn with the customs agent, everyone seemed to notice (but me) that he had a gun beside his keyboard. lovely!

our driver then drove us to the bolivian border, where we had another breakfast of ham sandwiches and bread with jam, and we were introduced to our driver, alberto. he looked about 22 and drove a red land cruiser that looked like it had been through several beatings.

i rode shotgun for the day while the others sat in the back (and often times, smacked their head in the ceiling due to all the bumps in the road. actually road should be in quotations... it was more semi-well-worn dirt paths). we went to a lot of the sites in the park - there was the laguna blanca (the white lake), the laguna verde (the green lake), hot springs, a bunch of rock formations, and around 2:30 we ended up at laguna colorada, which had a bunch of flamingoes.

the night in laguna colorada goes down probably as my second worst night of sleep of all time. first of all, laguna colorada was high in altitude - 4528m to be exact. so, we were not feeling too hot between the headaches and dehydration and being winded. second of all, it was FREEZING!!! we were all wearing about 6 layers of clothing. outside it was about -10C at night, the common room where we ate dinner it was 10C, and our room was 0C. at one point, we were so desperate for warmth that we snuck into another building that some british people were staying in that had heat. sweet mother!!!

meals were very strange. for lunch we had tomatoes, cucumbers, and hot dogs. for dinner, we had vegetable soup and pasta, which many of us got heartburn from.

at night, the five of us shoved three beds together and made an elaborate sleeping bag. yes, keith was the lucky guy in the centre!!!! :P it was impossible to sleep - between it being really cold, and it being kind of hot under so many blankets, heartburn, headaches, altitude sickness and our various sleeping habits (moaning, my snoring, others heavy breathing, tossing and turning), and it being pitch black, it was a really really bad night. second only to me and amelia{s night in marrakesh when we had no air conditioning, it was 50C and our room was filled with bbq exhaust smoke.

in the morning, none of us were too happy and we got back into the 4x4. this second day, we saw lots of rock formations and geysers. we also ended up in a town called copacabana for lunch - another small indigenous town with lots of low adobe huts. at night, we ended at the salt flats and stayed at a cute salt hotel! everything was made out of salt, save for the bathroom (thank goodness for that). we were happy to have a hot shower and hot tea, as well as some fairly good food. (we had llama chops for dinner! whoa!) most of us had a very solid sleep - it was great to sleep on a mattress again! kavitha and i lucked out with a room with two single beds with SPIDERMAN sheets. sweet.

today we are in uyuni. we spent a lot of time on the salt flats taking ridiculous photos, taking advantage of the fact that it is a large white surface and perspective is completely skewed. the salt was really neat - it looked like an endless mass of snow - except that it wasn{t cold! it was a strange juxtaposition of salt and cacti! we also went to the original salt hotel, which has now been converted to a museum (it is loosely called a museum - it had a lot of salt sculptures). apparently, the salt hotel had been condemned because of sewage problems. using their bathroom for 5 bolivianos, i could see why - it was repulsive!

afterwards, we stopped at an area where there were piles of salt - this is where they do salt mining.

we ended up at a random town for lunch - there was chicken and pasta. keith managed to eat an entire chicken!

we also went to a train graveyard before landing in uyuni. tonight, we will be heading on an overnight bus to la paz - a solid 11 hours. eeek! until then!

san pedro de atacama

since our last update, we have had very sporadic internet services, and it looks like for the next week or so, this will be the same case. so an update since the last time.....

after our last update, easter island got extremely extremely rainy. so much so that as soon as you stepped out, it soaked through even the most waterproof of materials. in addition to that, it was so damp that everything was wet or damp. even my passport!

to pass the time, we played a TON of games of yanif (yaniv? according to bossmat), an israeli card game that kavitha and i picked up from the two young germans in ilha do mel. the interesting part of the game is, you rack up points over time, but if you hit a multiple of 50 in your score, then you go back down to zero. as it stands right now, kavitha is in the lead, while i am lagging behind everyone at something like 470 points. brutal!

with the games of yaniv, we drank a lot of cheap chilean wine to pass the time. $2400 pesos per bottle, which works out to about $5. we are certainly a classy bunch. and unfortunately, we also broke two of oscar´s wine glasses. eeeeeek.

overall, while the dampness sort of got to us, we enjoyed oscar´s breakfasts. there was always toast, eggs, and fruit, which i really enjoyed. near the end of our stay there, oscar´s niece (the daughter of miss chile) was there, as well as a random kitten named sofia. sofia was CRAZY - she climbed screen doors and was constantly seeking attention. what a ham!

similarly, because things were so expensive in easter island, we ate at the same empenada stand EVERY DAY. $1300 pesos for a pino empenada (or an empiñata as cheryl would call it), which was an empenada filled with beef and onions. the other popular empenada amongst our group was the napolitana, which was basically ham, cheese and tomatoes.

kavitha and i lucked out with our room, because it seemed that smutty and cheryl had a very unfortunate room with a terribly musty smell and a broken toilet that made random ¨PHOOOOOOOOOOOSH¨ sound every two minutes. it caused them intense insomnia, as well as extensive plumbing issues when they had to stick their hand in the tank and drain it. on that note, toilet water in the tank is like tap water!!!!! don´t think negatively of them!

the flight back to santiago was great of course, with the wonderful in-flight entertainment. however, sleeping overnight in the santiago airport was not so pleasant. first of all, people were super rude there. second of all, we did not check in in time and we had to sleep on the cold metal benches in the area before check-in. i managed to get in a couple of power naps (as the team can attest) however others were not so lucky. bossmat could not sleep and ended up being the ¨night supervisor¨ and the others amused themselves with the candy machine which had very stale fruit candy. also, there was some very loud music playing, probably so people would not sleep in the airport. but nothing could stop us!! (side note: some of the music was actually good. i was amazed to see that they were playing videos for lily allen and portishead...?)

we ate dinner at a diner called gatsby´s that was open 24h! the food was ok, and i seemed to enjoy the fries. i was also able to call my dad, whose birthday it was. the phone cards at the airport were ridiculously expensive (2000 pesos for 10 minutes! sheesh!)

in the morning, we were able to check in and go to the gates, where there was a starbucks with REALLY COMFY couches where most were able to doze off. when it came time to check in, we realized that everyone on the flight, very nearly, were MEN! WTF! we kind of inferred that calama is a mining town. (this is our guess)

when we got to calama, the airport was tiny. smutty says, ¨they get smaller and smaller!¨ we crushed into a cab to get into town, then took a bus over to san pedro de atacama, which took about an hour. they played a spanish version of schindler´s list.

when we finally got into san pedro de atacama, it was super tiny. the town has a population of under 5000, and it is made up of low, mud adobe buildings. very cute! we were able to locate the HI hostel, which was also very cute, and it turns out it is the first time that we have all been able to share a room! keith is the only guy in our room.

our first day we were exhausted due to our long night in the santiago airport, and we spent the day looking for tours and eating out. surprisingly, the food here is AMAZING! probably the best meal we have had in chile has been at a restaurant called la casona. i had a wonderful zucchini garlic soup that was out of this world! similarly, we are all very fond of the fact that they give customers salsa and bread at the beginning of the meal. so good!

the climate here has also been super sunny and dry, a very welcome change from easter island. bossi, cheryl and keith have been tanning as much as possible, while keith has been perfecting his v neck farmer´s tan. MUY attractive. however, at night, it gets insanely cold - it doesn´t help that there is a big hole in our wall. to the point that we wear about 5 layers. the cold weather, however, is great for sleeping - there are about 3 blankets on our beds. last night we went to bed at 10, and got up at 8 this morning - solid!!! this was probably one of the best sleeps, if not THE best sleep, we have all had.

today has been insanely busy with various tours. in the morning, we went sandboarding in death valley (thankfully this name was not as bad as it sounded, although at times i thought so), and it was actually kind of fun! it involved hiking up a giant 50 degree incline sand dune, and going down a hill on a board with socked feet only. i am insanely afraid of going down slopes at high speeds, so it was perhaps not the best thing for me to do. unfortunately, kavitha was having eye problems so she didn´t come. :(

keith, who snowboards, was super good at sandboarding. bossi and i were struggling a bit - i think i spent more time getting up off my butt then actually going down a hill. cheryl was quite the prostar!

afterwards, we got back, showered (some colder than others), then got some snacks and had lunch at a different restaurant than la casona (note we had gone there for lunch and dinner the day before). thankfully they still had bread and salsa! PHEW!

after lunch, we went on a tour to valle de luna, or valley of the moon. our first stop was death valley, which was somewhat disappointing because we had already survived it in the morning. afterwards, we stopped at various lookout points, and then another one where we had to hike up a giant sand dune/mountain. the girls and keith (KD from this point forward) walked on a very uneven surface to check out the sunset, while i meandered off to another lookout point that had a view of a giant sand dune that someone had written ¨I HEART P¨ in it. we were all petrified of the uneven surfaced area because there was a lot of loose gravel and there was a huge, steep, about 100m plunge below into some sharp rocks. not so good. but we all survived!

we got back in the evening, and we found that cheryl had been kicked out of her bed by a minnesotan - only because she made her bed so nicely (note: mr. and mrs. hooper, your daughter makes a real good bed). then we did some grocery shopping for our 3 day bolivia trip (including about 9 super 8 chocolate bars.... more on that later), purchased some crackers, and the like.

i have to add that super 8 chocolate bars are MUY GOOD. they are made by nestle, and are essentially crispy wafers covered in chocolate. not too sweet! not as sweet as a kitkat. and they are very cost effective. in santiago, i got them for 250 pesos (about 50 cents) while in san pedro they have only been 100 pesos! BARGOONS!

for dinner we went to a cute little restaurant where we ordered the menu del dia. for 2990 pesos, we got a great salad, salmon with rice and cucumber, and this amazing fruit salad, syrup and cereal on it. so good!!!

we also want to add that we have been on a mcdonald´s cono famine strike. we have not had ANY dulce de leche y vainilla conos since my birthday in buenos aires! HOLY! well, except for cheryl (which she yells ¨IT WAS ONLY VANILLA!! don´t add that!¨) we are hoping that in la paz they have these conos.

in san pedro de atacama, i have found that ATMs are very hard to come by. and if you do find them, they do not have any money in them!!!! sheesh!

to end our blog, we need to profile a couple of people.

our latest traveller to replace arti :( is keith. he is a virgo, and if he was an animal, he would be a cougar, however, i thought he more closely resembled a meerkat. keith is actually the most high maintenance traveller on the trip, demanding hot showers daily and having a highly regimented baseball cap and hair gel technique. he has the least amount of clothing and the most amount of first aid supplies. he even has iodine!!!

we would like to add that keith´s manliness has come in handy, including changing tires, driving standard, getting wine in the rain, carrying heavy bags, and helping us step down cliffs. however, he has been getting a little bit cocky, saying today that ¨you girls needed a man on this trip!¨ the four of us were dismayed and then proceeded to air punch him accompanied by a loud ¨DOOOOOOSH!¨

other people we have met on this trip in the douche category has been an australian chef who seemed to have a chip on his shoulder about him being a chef. he was also travelling with his ex-fiancee, who was perceivably more successful than he was. eeek.

similarly, we met a spaniard who knew about 7 different languages, but lived in toronto in a homeless shelter for a month, lying about losing his wallet!!!! the homeless shelter gave him free room and board (including a big screen tv in a common room) as well as money every wednesday and he even begged for money. the homeless shelter even paid for his ticket back to colombia!!!! i could not believe that our canadian tax system paid for this shit. the four of us girls were COMPLETELY unimpressed, while keith tried to maintain the peace.

anyhoo, we are off on a 4x4 trek tomorrow to bolivia, and will hopefully blog soon. until then!!!

ps. we are expecting a mattress on the second night of our trip and a shower. can´t wait!

easter island....... long overdue post

our departure from santiago was super early - some of us didnt sleep very well, while some of us could barely get up (hi.) we were happy to escape santiago{s crappy crappy rainy weather and terrible pollution.

at the airport at our gate, lo and behold, we saw a fellow walking up to us with a hello - it was none other than keith davis! despite the fact that we lost our favourite giraffe (sadness!!!!) we gained another fifth person rather quickly.

easter island so far has been wonderful. the flight here was so pleasant - LAN really does a great job in terms of service and food. also, new planes help out a lot too - the seats and inflight entertainment were spectacular. in addition to the typical reclining seat and upright tray, there was also a separate cupholder, cell phone holder and the in-flight entertainment had all sorts of movies, tv shows, games, and music (example: they even had the magnolia soundtrack!?!?! way to get a jon brion fix.)

when we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by our residencial host (oscar) with a bunch of leis - what a nice touch!!! totally the aloha spirit at work (even though that is another part of the polynesian triangle. hum.)

oscar then drove us to his house, which was a lovely small place with a huge tropical garden in the front and back (read: mangoes, guavas, bananas), as well as a nice porch with a dining room table. the rooms were basic, but had everything we needed - beds, bathrooms, a table, a bedside lamp, clean sheets. unfortunately, keith was not able to stay with us, but luckily the HI hostel was about 100 m away.

oscar recommended that we hike up to rano kau crater - the hike was completely uphill, but very scenic. cheryl, keith and bossmat completely booted it all the way up, while kavitha and i were the herbies in the back (i of course was winded in about 2 minutes.) on the way, we walked through various fields of tall grasses (almost frolicking) and saw lots of random cows and horses. the views of the pacific ocean were just surreal - water for as far as the eye could see. the ocean was just glassy and blue and there were jagged pieces of lava jutting out of the water. there were rain clouds in the distance and you could see the rain pouring down. on the way up, i found a log overlooking the ocean and it was the jelly! probably my favourite place in the world.

when we finally did make it up to rano kau crater, it was super windy. but this crater was also surreal! it was very deep, and filled with fresh water and a lot of vegetation. apparently, they found naturally grown coffee plants, mango plants, and a very rare species of tree endemic only to easter island in this crater. it is pretty much its own biosphere!

the hike back down was extremely tiring - i had worn flip flops (not my smartest idea to date!) so my feet were killing me. when we finally did make it back down, we collapsed at the table on our porch.

for dinner that night, we made some pasta with no spices. innnnnteresting. oscar{s mom watched us closely to make sure that we would not blow up her kitchen!

the next day, we had breakfast that oscar made - banana taro cake, eggs, tomato, mango juice, tea, and toast - it was so delicious. afterwards, we went to the easter island museum to get a sense of how the island was formed and how the culture evolved and how the moai came about. the most interesting thing that i learned was that there were wars between the clans, and during that time, people pushed over the moai for revenge! so sad! also, the entire island was bankrupted due to an informal war of who could make a bigger moai. so crazy!!!

after that, we decided we would rent a car for the next day - so we spent the afternoon exploring the western side of the island. it was simply amazing! we saw tongairiki, the infamous ones in the mountain and quarry, and a ton of moais that had been pushed over. it is sad to think that in a couple hundred or thousand years, these statues will be eroded into the ground, only to reenter the cycle of life again. :(

after tongariki, we had a flat tire! thankfully, keith, who had been driving us around (thank goodness he knew how to drive standard) also knew how to change a tire. MUY MANLY!!!!! as we were finishing up, a tour bus saw us and they came out to help us with the tire. super nice!!!!

we got back to the residencial in one piece.

this morning has been a bit of a crapshoot because of a torrential downpour. i cannot even explain the volume of rain that came down!! more about that later!

santiago, valparaiso, globalization

unfortunately, we weren´t able to do a second group blog today, so i will update alone!

after our fateful day walking up san cristobal (the mary statue at the top of the hill), the next morning we woke up super early to take a bus over to valparaiso, described as ¨the san francisco of chile¨. the buildings in the city are made of coloured sheet metal, and dot the hills overlooking the ocean. gorgeous! unfortunately, we had overcast weather and a very chilly wind, which was not conducive to picture taking.

after catching the bus from pajaritos station, we made it there in under 2 hours. instead of being ripped off by the local tour, we made our own. we stopped off first at pablo neruda´s valparaiso house (i was never really into his poems, but in the time that he lived, he lived a very eclectic, bohemian life. were/are all diplomats like this?) afterwards, we walked down the hill, and took one of the city´s infamous elevators downhill. they were very old and rickety, very unique! they are very much like a funicular.

we then had lunch and afterwards went back to santiago for the evening.

the next day was very rainy.... i unfortunately fell very ill from the night before so missed the winery tour to concha y toro in the morning and opted instead to sleep and read. in the afternoon, we didn´t do much but sit in a cafe, and we hit up one of the museums. and we made dinner.

the days have actually been blurring together here because of the rain. last night we went to go out for drinks at a bar called ¨backstage pass¨ (slightly cheesy). they had the funniest pizza names - note that the pizzas were delicious - do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do, do sharp, and three other black keys. they also had a lot of regional drinks - i had one that was made of pisco, lemon juice, honey, and green chilli, which kind of tasted like a marinade for chicken, but was quite good. kavitha and cheryl, who have become inseparable as of late ;) both got pisco sours, and bossmat and arti had a mojito and an orange mojito each. we were amazed to find that we actually stayed out past 12:30AM, a new record!!

today, we went to unimarc and picked up a bunch of groceries for easter island. afterwards, arti left :( - we will miss our favourite giraffe! the girls went shopping, while i went to the concha y toro winery with helena (a girl from our hostel).

while waiting to catch the bus to the winery from one of the bus stops, i looked around me and got a little frightened and had a bit of an a-ha moment about globalization (i wish i had taken a picture of it). except for the backdrop of the andes, everything around me looked like america. pizza hut, mcdonalds, kentucky fried chicken, shell, esso. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! it was almost as if someone had transplanted this very american scene and then placed a green screen behind it that could easily be replaced by the mountains or a blue cloudless sky. and we talk about having ¨identities¨ today. eeeeeeeeeek.

tomorrow morning we take off to easter island - internet is apparently very expensive, so if we do not blog for awhile, it is not because we are in trouble!! we will do our best to update.

the canadian tuxedo debate, muy usage, and the perfect hostel

one of our residual questions that we kept forgetting to clarify was what exactly a canadian tuxedo is. this was prompted by the uniforms at argentinean mcdonald's, where employees wore denim shirts and mcdonalds jeans on the bottom. "AHHH! a canadian tuxedo!" i exclaimed, while cheryl said, "no way! that's double denim! a canadian tuxedo is a sweatsuit!"

i had been under the impression from andy that a canadian tuxedo was denim on top, and denim on the bottom. while cheryl was positive that double denim was the right name and the canadian tuxedo referred to the sweatsuit.

lo and behold, this morning i checked in google and the winner is...............

the denim on top, denim on bottom combo!!!! muy gasp.

on that note, i get the feeling amongst our group that the phrase "muy" is reaching a saturation point. usage has dropped off significantly. during a game of pool last night, it was only used twice!

lastly, kavitha and i, during a rainy day in ilha de mel, designed the characteristics of the perfect hostel that we will one day build:

• structurally sound bunk beds
  
• mattresses with good support
  
• shelves
  
• lockers under the bed and for valuables
  
• secure locker-type spaces for charging ipods, phones, etc. around your bed
  
• showers with great water pressure
  
• hot showers
  
• some private bathrooms
  
• chairs in the room
  
• adjustable dimming lights in the room
  
• a fully equipped kitchen
  
• cleanliness
  
• good public transportation access
  
• phones for phone card usage
  
• free, fast internet and wifi
  
• a social area
  

and the list is to be expanded.

on the last note, today is artigas's last day - we are really sad to see her leave (especially since she is my pillar of strength). we will miss her "what are we doing now?" amongst many other arti-isms.

ps.

i was reading a duty free magazine, and there was an interview with an argentinean chef named narda lepes. she said that

a) the best fruits and vegetables are from uruguay, TOTALLY corroborating my tomato observations. (just call me cam jansen.)
b) that the best kept secret in cuisine in buenos aires is chinatown?!?!?!?! who knew.

santiago updates

in our post two posts ago, we forgot to mention that kavitha has been designated as a turtle. especially when she is shirking into her green sweatshirt and donning her backpack. meanwhile, i have been designated as a panda or a hippo?!?! it will be a miracle if i do not develop an eating disorder in the meantime. sheesh.

yesterday morning, we spent the day bumming about in montevideo. we packed, then wnadered around until about 1, when we checked out and walked over to the bus station. to get the airport, it was only $22 pesos, which is about $1. BARGOONS!!! DEALZZZZZ! however, the bus was extremely crowded and i spent the majority of the trip with people's crotches in my face (very unpleasant). at least i had a seat!

when we got to the airport, we nearly missed our stop - luckily, everyone on the bus was on our side, and as the driver almost drove away, they yelled, PARRADA! (stop i think?) and stopped him 5 times, for each time one of us got off the bus. super funny.

the flight to santiago we were all separated, except for the giraffe and turtle (arti and kavitha, for our readers). i sat beside a ginger haired chilean kid (!) and her mom, and they were surprisingly pleasant. cheryl had fun arm wrestling and elbowing her armrest neighbour and bossmat seemed to have a dandy time. they served a really yummy jam cookie on the plane.

when we got there, we were surprised to find that we had to pay a $132 US entrance fee. WHAT GIVES! it was the highest for canadians, $131 for americans, $23 for mexicans, and something like $70 for australians. no one else had to pay an entry fee. L-A-M-E.

because we had to pay that fee, we were late to pick up our bags, and they were tossed on the floor and investigated by sniffer dogs. unfortunately bossmat's was marked, and she was targeted for her dried fruit and nuts, and then interrogated for about half an hour in a one way mirrored room! a very unpleasant experience overall. cheryl was interrogated over her dulce de leche. luckily, the minorities got away scot free. woot!

as soon as we left the terminal, three were a ton of chileans harassing us for rides into town. then a random canadian (skyler) asked us if we wanted to go into town together, so we all took a transvip minivan together, amounting to $4.000 pesos each. there was MUY traffic coming in, so after the adouanes (customs) fiascos and finally getting money and transportation in, we got in around 8PM.

when we got to the hostel, we were all very overwhelmed. it reeked of incense, and there seemed to be an abundance of hippies. we were MUY colon S. :S ABC and skyler ended up in a room close to the entrance, while kavitha and i were exiled to the cold dungeon, a room in the back of the hostel in the basement with no heat. only fitting that that happens to the trolls. HMPH!

skyler ended up tagging along with us in the evening and for dinner we went to a muy sketchy bar and had a muy sketchy pizza and deep fried wonton wrappers. half of the crowd really liked it! (i think i was just muy jealous because i couldn't eat cheese). we were in the university district so there were a lot of students. also, we sat behind a video jukebox, and one guy insisted on playing three reggaeton songs over and over and over again. which is fine, except that reggaeton videos are MUY SCANDALOUS! lots of jiggling, scantily clad women, and thongs. :|

at night, i had a difficult time sleeping because of my sinus problems and being crazy dehydrated) and ended up switching beds midway through the night. i think my roommates thought i was insane. cheryl was stuck with a bright orange light radiating on to her bed, which is fitting considering that in buenos aires she had a huge billboard shining into her face (gerardo sofovich, for your reference). kavitha adds, "i wonder what easter island will bring."

this morning, we had an interesting breakfast (GYNORMOUS buns with jam as well as ceylon tea... kavitha adds CEYLON! WOOT! SRI LANKA!) and then wandered off to run a couple errands: cancelling hostels, laundry, groceries (kavitha and i stocked up major!), booking tours, research, the post office (ANDY!!!!!! and my sister), etc. by the time we finished, it was around 1:30, and at that time we walked to the parque metropolitan.

parque metropolitan is what you think it is - the metropolitan park. there is a zoo, a funicular, as well as a cable car. at the top is the virgin mary, a big statue much like christ the redeemer (but not quite as grand). we managed to hike up the giant mountain/hill (a mountain to me, kavitha and arti, a molehill to bossmat and cheryl who are WAY more in shape). we had a little picnic on a log.

at the top of the hill, we took lots of pictures, wrote postcards, meandered, and ate ice cream. there was also a dog that was a real ham. it would just limp about (we were thinking this was all an act) and then start making strange poses so people would pay attention to it. then it followed us to the gift shop!!! craziness.

on the way down, we took the cable car, which was lovely but a little scary as they did not close completely. very scenic! then we walked to pio nono through a very ritzy chilean neighbourhood and were

a) invited to a birthday party for what we think is a toddler (all of us really wanted to after we had walked by)
b) were barked at by a GIANT SHEEPDOG that looked like a muppet (it was quite frightening because it appeared over the top of a giant 10 foot fence and we thought it would attack us)

finally, we got back and now we are blogging. potential activities:

tomorrow: valparaiso, and sunday: wining. we will, of course, keep you updated.

happy victoria day to our canadian readers!!!

residual questions:

1) why do mirrors get black spots over time?
2) who reads this blog other than parents, siblings, and boyfriends? (and amelia and liz and emma)

tomatoes and carbon footprints

i have noticed that in the three countries kavitha and i have visited, i have had dishes containing tomato in each. brazil, they were somewhat anorexic, artificially ripened, bruised, mealy, pale on the inside, and bland. argentina, they were like brazil´s, but about three times worse. in uruguay, i have managed to have tomato in my meal over the past two days, and the tomatoes have been fantastic! ripe, firm on the outside and tasty. with three countries in such close proximity to each other, why is this? is the soil that different? do they import tomatoes from other countries?

before i left on this trip, i managed to go for tea with emma and we were discussing how people can justify travel given all of the carbon emissions. on this trip, kavitha and i will have taken about 7 flights - 5 short haul, and 2 long haul. this is in addition to all the trains, boats, buses, subways, taxis, and the like in each of the places we visit. these backpacking trips i see as an educational experience (i hear the choruses of ¨NERRRRRRD!¨ in the background) and i try to bring back all this knowledge to the people i know in as many forms as possible.

residual questions;

1) who is kavitha, REALLY?
2) what are the trade agreements between the mercosur countries?
3) who is artigas? is he the founder of uruguay?
4) why is there such a large shortage of coins in argentina?
5) why is argentina so hesitant to use credit cards? is it tied to their uber-inflationary period?

a veritable united nations

to many people´s surprise, all of us have only known each other for 8 months or less! we decided on this trip during project management class, hence the spreadsheets. (we would have added a gantt chart if we could). at first, it was just kavitha and i, but after much cajoling, the other three were convinced to come! WOOOT! we knew that we could all get along and didn´t annoy each other, but as a result, we are just learning about each other now along the way.

everywhere we have gone as a group, we have received many confused glances. when we say that we are canadian, they ask, ¨EVERYONE? really?¨ yes, it is true. we are the united nations, as aptly described by cheryl. some of you have asked who some of the thomas, hooper, mak, gal and davda travelling companions are. below, we will detail:

arti is a cancer (which i claim represents the flakiest astrological sign, apparently) and is from calgary. WOOT! if we were to describe arti as an animal, we would assign the giraffe due to her tall and slender frame. arti and the davda family will be hosting us for the calgary stampede in 2009. MUY EXCITING! MUY THANKS IN ADVANCE! and MUY INVITING OURSELVES OVER! we also need to add that arti was a pathfinder, has her canada cord, and does garba dancing (displayed at her brothers wedding two years ago, as well as random chinese new years events).

bossmat is a sagittarius, which allegedly is the smartest astrological sign (according to cheryl, who is also a sagittarius). she grew up in thornhill. bossmat packed a lot of colourful clothing, and even brought along a pair of khaki coloured sweat pants, which we call ¨fancy pants¨. (by the way, if you saw them, you would think they are fancy too) bossmat in general is definitely the fashionista of the group. anything she wears looks good. MUY JEALOUS!

cheryl is also a sagittarius, she is muy athletic and quite good at tango steps, which reflects her figure skating background. we learned that she used to be a troublemaker in her youth (i.e. grade school) and constantly was in detentions! WHO KNEW!? cheryl is from whitby. we also learned that cheryl makes lots of pies, and we are waiting for our share of the pie. MUY PIE! cheryl has not referred to us as her friends yet, rather, referring to us as her acquaintances, peers or esteemed colleagues. we hope the next 6 weeks will change this. we feel much pressure.

heather is a taurus, and recently celebrated her 26th birthday. (sigh. muy old.) because i am writing this, i am not very neutral. i am great.

Alright, to be fair...and after reading my profile, I (Cheryl) have decided to take over.

Heather is the lightest packer, which is great for her but bad for us as we have to look at the same outfit everyday. She is also a postcard freak! It is the first destination in every new city, and often involves a long trek around the city (thanks Andy). She is by far the best at providing random peices of information, for instances, she recently told me that glass is actually a liquid, which is why in really old glass it disforms and is pushed downwards in its frame.....MUY RANDOM). Heather also have many Mak-isms....we have all started to pick them up. Lately Heather´s addiction to Dulce de Leche has been all consuming...now it is a staple at every meal (she even steals "to go" packages for the road to satisfy her random cravings).

Now back to Mak:

kavitha is a libra and is our oldest travelling buddy but youngest looking by far. (for example, the old man in rio who thought she was not of age to drink yet.) the fact that she puts her hair in braids and pig tails does not help! we have learned that kavitha was a MUY bookworm in school, and went on an exchange to australia in high school. WHAT! kavitha loves burritos, and also has 5 pairs of shoes in her bag! she also has a bright yellow rain jacket. we feel (note that girls use ¨we feel¨ so as not to appear too decisive or harsh) we need to ply kavitha with wine tonight to get some more juicy gossip to give you in a further entry. MOOOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. to conclude, we would like to add that kavitha is often the ticket holder, because as the oldest, she is by default the most responsible.

and now, off to dinner. BON APPETIT!

day ? - montevideo

the past two days have been a bit of a whirlwind. in the morning, we were supposed to catch a ferry over to colonia. bossmat went for a brisk walk at around 7AM, that ended up being a marathon around buenos aires. we had previously thought that we were taking a 1 hour trip on buquebus to colonia, then a 2 hour bus to montevideo. however, it turns out that we were taking a whole other company´s servies (colonia express), with a 2.5 hour ferry ride and a 2.5 hour bus ride. it is also important to note that the bus smelled like stale urine, an upgrade from the bus tour that we had taken in buenos aires, which smelled like fresh urine. gross. or rather, muy gross.

anyway, we ended up getting into town at 3ish, and our first stop was at mcdonalds to get a sense of regional pricing. our base point is the cono con dulce de leche y vainilla, which is 2 argentinean pesos, or around 65 cents canadian. imagine our surprise when we got to the bus station, and it was actually $22! WHAT! twenty uruguayan pesos is equal to one canadian dollar. this was a surprise to cheryl, who took out 100 pesos from the bank machine, not realizing that it equalled $5. she has since spent that on her bank charges for that particular withdrawal.

we then took two cabs into town, which cost about $5 canadian, which is not too shabbo! (¨SHABBU!¨ adds cheryl) we then found our hotel, which when we walked in, was very dark, and the main reception area had very low carpeted ceilings. there was also a little doorway that resembled a hobbit hole. muy interessant. we were pleasantly surprised when we got our rooms, because they had 20 foot ceilings and adjoining door! talk about MUY GIRL TALK GOSSIP SESSIONS! pillow fights! braiding hair! and painting nails! girl guide singalongs (to-wit, to-wit, to-woo)!

it was also nice to get our own beds that were not part of a bunk bed. muy rolling! it was also nice not to have random people in our room, coming in in the middle of the night (cheryl adds, ¨WOOHOO! no random naked men!¨) we also got some heaters, which were a welcome addition given that the rooms were so cold that we wore about 4 layers. EEEK.

we ended up going to a diner called pasiva, which was very decently priced. i dont think that any of us spent over $5 on our meals. the waitress thought that we had scammed her and counted the money in front of us, and she was surprised to find that we had left her a nice tip. HA! the same cannot be said today with our rude waitress. eek.

afterwards, we ventured over to a grocery store called ¨ta-ta¨, which may or may not be affiliated with the indian conglomerate. (i am guessing not.) we stocked up on fruit and lots of cookies, and others picked up yogourt drinks, water and juice. i got some gross chunky soy milk by accident, which was muy gross.

for dinner, we ended up at cafe baccacay, which was a block over from our hotel, and was muy delicious. arti ordered an apple pancake with ice cream accompanied by a glass of white wine (she claims it was big and this is the reason why it took the evening to finish), bossmat ordered a salad and leche caliente, cheryl and kavitha ordered a cute meat/cheese/bread plate, as well as a 1/2 bottle of red wine (boozehounds!!!!!!!!), and i ordered some fish tidbits, which ended up being fish sticks. i was SO roped in by the tidbits. sigh. cheryl and i decided to go overboard and ordered some pear pie, which was a bit too heavy on the glaze, but had some good pear-ish moments. bossmat claimed there was some rum flavouring. lastly, we were quite impressed with our waiter, who had MUY GOOD english, and everytime we spoke to him in spanish/spanglish/sign language, he responded to us in english.

this morning, we all took showers (some colder than others) and then walked around town. we came across a store called ¨indian emporium¨ which was neither indian (and contained no indians save for arti and kavitha), nor an emporium. in fact, it was just a large clothing store. arti claims that some of the clothes were made in india, but no one can verify this. no one ended buying anything from the store.

something strange about montevideo is that you have to place all your bags in lockers before you enter stores. kavitha, arti, bossmat and cheryl found this very refreshing, meanwhile, i thought this was a bit of a nuisance and wondered if people could scam long term storage in the store.

we also walked along the rambla (the path beside the water) which was nice. bossmat and cheryl made full use of the rays while kavitha and i hid in our sweatshirts. arti was the perfect medium for sun exposure.

we stopped at a terrible restaurant for lunch (refer to previous note about no tip) and i had a terrible spaghetti bolognese that tasted like a leather wallet. muy gross. kavitha had a hot sandwich with MUY cheese, cheryl had a salad with hard boiled eggs, chicken, tomato, and cheese, and arti and bossmat shared a plate of papas fritas (french fries). the waitress was terribly brusque and as a result, we left her NO TIP. that is right, NO TIP. she literally asked us for one, but alas, NO TIP. we promptly left the scene while bossmat was left behind assembling her many bags (when we say many bags, we mean 2).

afterwards, we walked up to the mercado de puerto, which is where we should have had lunch, because it smelled MUY YUMMY. it was also super cute! it was essentially like a uruguayan st. lawrence market, but without all the produce.

right beside it was the tourist office, which was in a non-descript location. we wanted to come here to find out how to get to the airport, however the four ladies working there gave us that and BEYOND. they almost gave us a self-guided tour around the city. but we were clearly kindred spirits, because the ladies had a spreadsheet monitoring all the visitors that came to the centre. (our guess was that we were the only people on the spreadsheet).

after that, we attempted to go to a mall, but found it difficult. instead, we ended up going BOWLING!!!!!!!! when in uruguay, what do you do? bowl! uruguayan bowling does not require that you rent those gross smelly shoes. a girl in the adjacent lane was even wearing heels! the lanes were also very rough, and were not waxed in the slightest. arti was the top scorer, and you should have seen how gracefully she bowled. you could literally not hear the ball drop when she bowled. it must be her garba (indian dancing) training in full force!

on the way back, we stopped at ta-ta, and we all took photos of yerba mate and dulce de leche. as it turns out, they kicked us out of the store!!! MUY LOW POINT!

bossmat has been trying all day to get a photo of a uruguayan (perhaps a good looking one) drinking some mate in one of the special mate cups. even though there are many of these situations occurring throughout the day, it seems to be an elusive photo. the hunt continues.

now we are back to the hostel and will go to don peperone for dinner tonight. it better be muy good after that terrible meal today. cheryl and i have eaten a ton of dulce de leche wafers (i thought they were MUY bad) and me, cheryl and arti have inhaled all of cheryl´s vanilla arrowroot type cookies.


another thing we have noted in montevideo is that garbage collection occurs with horse-drawn carts. MUY STRANGE! some horses even wear straw hats for this endeavour! unfortunately we were unable to capture this on film (or rather, memory card)

below, we have detailed some of our expected vs. actual comparisons of south america thus far:

expected vs. actual comparisons (an ode to BO)

1) beans and rice - we were expecting a lot of beans and rice in the cuisine of south american countries, including burritos. instead, in brazil we found a lot of meat and deep fried meals. in argentina, it has been beef, chicken, and more beef, and a lot of pasta (who knew those italians were taking over?) in uruguay, there has been a lot of pasta, pizza, and oozy cheesy/meaty sandwiches.

2) squat and sit toilets - arti and i were fully expecting squat toilets, however, so far we have not come across one (to our excitement). showers, on the other hand, have been interesting in uruguay, following a somewhat ¨open concept¨ (aka the entire bathroom is flooded)

3) cold vs warm - being semi close to the equator, we expected south america to be relatively warm, i.e. mid 20s. yesterday night, we found ourselves wearing ski gear, including all our sweatshirts, gloves, hats, and (pashmina) scarves. we really blended in with the locals well. :S

an argentinean birthday celebration

before i talk about todays events, i will recap last night{s events. we went to a tango show at cafe tortoni, which cost us 60 pesos. the show was good, perhaps even MUY good. the first set was a bit confusing because all the women were wearing scandalous boudoir type outfits and not so much about the swishy dresses that we have seen in other tango routines. the food at cafe tortoni was not too bad either. i was happy to see that they sold churros at the venue, and of course HAD to pick some up! (shoutouts to a-beans. sigh.) what i thought was chocolate sauce with churros (chocolate con churros) ended up being hot chocolate and churros. my tummy was none too happy!

today was my 26th birthday (sheeesh!) typically, birthdays for me are bittersweet. another year older, another year wiser. i preferred to keep it rather low key, and in the morning the girls went shopping while i handwashed a load of clothing and then dried it at the laundromat. so nice to have (semi) clean clothes! then we met up and then went to san telmo, which ended up being a bit of a ghost town in terms of things being open. we ended up having some empenadas and various beverages in the square, and noticed that there were a lot of pigeons around us (note that cheryl LOVES pigeons.... not.) and a lot of americans who seemed to like using the word like a lot. like oh my god. like totally, like STOP! AHHHHH!

afterwards, we took the subway over to chinatown, which is 5 blocks a way from juramento station close to the end of the D line. the juramento area was super cute - very residential, with lots of cute boutiques and much less touristy. chinatown was behind some train tracks and consisted of maybe 5 restaurants and a couple of import/export type stores. but boy was i glad to have some chinese food!! i also want to add the strangeness that is argentinean chinese people. they speak what sounds like mandarin, but with a bit more of a twang! i have found communicating with them very careful. it is strange that as chinese people, we look similar, but can{t communicate!! between pigeon spanish, english, and cantonese, there was very little common language ground.

then of course, we went to mcds for a dulce de leche ice cream. YUM!

in bs as, we have not been able to go out, because we have been too tired to do so! it seems as though buenos aires is coming up as a big party city a la ibiza - i cant believe that people go out at 1, 2AM! so opposite to north america.

tomorrow morning we are going to uruguay, montevideo in particular.

last note: we also learned today that kavitha sometimes goes by the name of cavity.

an update on the towel, as well as gaucho-ness

strangely enough, the most comments we have received on a post has been my post on the smelly towel!!! i would just like to follow up with the fact that i purchased a 100% cotton towel at falabella for 12 pesos, and i have never been fresher. just in case you were wondering. smell factor = 0!!!

kavitha will update you on the occurrences of the past two days but i just wanted to update you on todays gaucho experience that me and cheryl went to. although it was muy expensive at $190 pesos (about $60 canadian), as soon as we got off the bus we were given empenadas (WOOOOOOOT!) and argentinean wine. best empenadas i have ever had! of all the ones i have encountered, these have included carne, pollo, and corn. carne is definitely the best. i quite enjoy the bits of hard boiled egg and olive in them. :D

after that, we went on a couple of horseback rides - quite short but a lot of fun. hooper had a blast as she had not been horseback riding before. muy shoutouts to liz, it reminded me of when we went in hawaii. sob.

then we had the meatiest meaty asado i had ever seen before. it included chorizo, blood sausage (not a repeat consumer of this), various cuts of beef (vacuno), and chicken. with some random salads - one of which i particularly enjoyed. i will discuss more in depth the blood sausage and salad.

the blood sausage, which is like black pudding, was semi repulsive. taste wise, it was good, but texture wise it was like eating meaty butter. not a fan! particularly gross was when you sliced into it - jets of it just squirted out. shudder.

one of the salads had mayo, potatoes, beets, hard boiled eggs, and tomatoes. a colourful and unlikely combo, but muy delicious!

overall, both cheryl and i had a major case of meat sweats AND meat coma. and we only had half a portion of what we were supposed to! i cant even imagine those people who had the full servings of meat provided.

also, there were a bunch of chinese peeps on the tour - they were cantonese speakers! so i had a nice conversation with them. this was in contrast to last night, which kavitha will speak to more in depth.

after the huge lunch, we ended up seeing a bit of tango and some gaucho performances. this included a lot of spinning of ropes and tapping and slapping and dancing. muy fun!

and after that, we ended up watching a mini-rodeo. it was muy dusty!!!

btw - i should add in our blog that the word of this trip so far has been MUY, and we try to use it as much as possible, even though it is incorrect. i think it actually means [very]. for example,

that guy is MUY cute!!!!!
you need to MUY ZOOM on to that soccer player!
i am so MUY tired!

sometimes we will use it with a proper spanish word, such as, MUY BUENO! but this does not happen often.

on that note, i am awfully dusty from the estancio gaucho party, so i am off to take a shower with my wonderful towel. i will talk to you later! tonight we are off to a tango show!

somewhere in week 3

To our loyal readers, we apologize for the absence of blogging over the past few days. I will attempt to re-cap all the juicy details of our recent adventures...

So Friday morning we all woke up bright an early ready to be the ultimate tourists on a bus tour around the city... however to our annoyance when we went to reception to pick up our voucher, we were told that we were bumped to the afternoon bus. grrrr. so we decided to go see what our tango options were. we ended up at a tango hall just around the corner from our hostel. We opted to take a 3hr tango lesson for 20 pesos (bargoons!). Clearly we were all beginners and were ushered to the very back of the tango hall where we were greeted by Roxanna, our instructor. The step-by-step instructions started off slow, but definitely picked up in complexitity by the end of the 3 hour session. Roxanna was great, giving each of us personal tips on how to improve. It was easy to get distracted by the more advanced dancers who were practicing in the middle of the hall... there was an adorable old couple who were probably in their 70s who were brilliant dancers - so fluid in their movement and clearly still in love (muy cuuttteee!!).

After the tango lesson we gave ourselves ´free time´(yes, the HK itinerary is that detailed) and split up to do our own thing. Heather, Arti and I hit up Florida street (shopping galore!)... where Heather ended up finally getting her much desired haircut. despite the hairdressers´lack of english, the cut turned out great and was el cheapo as well ($20!). Arti and I ended up shopping in one shoe store for about 40 minutes.. there were sooo many cute shoes, we couldn´t decide what to buy. I of course bought a pair (yes mom, i know there´s no more room in my closet!) and although Arti didn´t make a purchase, she´s inspired and is eyeing a pair of boots! Bossmat and Cheryl went exploring near the port... this is where I believe they discovered that they were both Sagitarius.

On a side note - the five of us have adopted a HUGE addiction to McDonald´s soft-serve ice cream. We just can´t help ourselves... it´s awful, but ooooh-sooo-delicious!!! We´re all loving the option of the dulce de leche flavour (caramalized condensed milk.. YUM!).

Thus far, we´d experienced planes, trains, vans, taxis and boats, so it´s only natural that we add the subway to our list of transportation methods. When asked to re-count her experience on the Buenos Aires subway, Arti flinches and says 'Oh God!' -- that just about sums it up. It was absolutely ridiculous. Three subways cars went by before we were able to shove ourselves on. We almost had to give it a running start to be able to cram ourselves in. Once inside we were so tightly packed in that you didn´t even have to hold on to anything. We were all hoping that we were hit a subway stop like Yonge&Bloor where half the people would exit and the subway car would free up... no such luck.

We took the subway to an artsy neighbourhood called La Palermo. We walked quite a bit before we a) got to the actual restaurant district and b) found a restaurant that was appealing/in a reasonable price range. Cheryl, Heather and I finally indulged in some good hearty Argentinean meat. Mak and I opted for steaks and Cheryl, a pork/roasted apple option. Arti enjoyed quesadillas and mozza sticks and Bossmat had a tuna salad. And although all our dinners were scrumptious, nothing could prepare us for what came next. We ordered 3 different desserts - tiramisu, apple crumble and the crunchy banana. The third dish was absolutely heaven on a plate (even for me, the non-dessert lover) -- deep fried banana wrapped in filo pastry with a coconut topping and vanilla ice cream on the side. Cheryl, Heather and Arti went at it like a pack of coutis.. it was hilarious and I sooo wish I had videotaped them devouring the plate. It was a wonder that Bossmat and I even got to taste it!! This dinner for me was a highlight of the trip so far -- a great 3 hours of eating, drinking, reminicing, devouring and laughing.

Saturday...
We finally got to take the bus tour. It took us all over the city.. to some neighbourhoods we had already been and others that we had been curious about. The one tidbit that we learned was that 'porteno', the word that described people from Buenos Aires, is derived from the fact that Buenos Aires is a port city. The bus stopped in La Boca -- the neighbourhood that is home to the fan-favourite ´La Boca´football team and to Caminito, an iconic street with very brightly coloured houses. After the bus tour we hopped off the bus early and wandered around the port, where we grabbed lunch. After that on our way back to the hostel we swung by a recommended tango hall to grab tickets for a Sunday night performance.

We were all pretty exhausted after a long day, and had big plans to go out on the town that night, so we decided to all take time to relax/nap before gussying-it-up for our night out. We initially wanted to hit up China town, but after a lengthy discussion with the guys at the reception about dinner options/club options, we decided to stay close to home. We walked a few blocks up the street and consulted about 15 menus along the way before we decided upon Oro d'Dragon - a Chinese restaurant that smelled divine when Heather and I first walked in. The restaurant also had Chinese staff, so the legitimacy meter rank high. We got quite a few strange stares as we made our way to our table. I didnt really think much of it as Heather and I have become accustomed to random stares. With our luck we were sitted behind a table of guys who were smoking non-stop. There were several empty tables near the front of the restaurant, so we attempted to make a move. Heather politely asked in Spanish if we could move to the front. That didn't work out so well. Then we figured perhaps she should try in Cantonese. We were of course assigned to the ONE Spanish waiter in the restaurant, so I asked him in Spanish if Heather could speak to a Chinese waiter. That didn´t work so well as we were then handed an all-Chinese menu (the ones we had previously were in spanish and chinese). So I asked again. woot.. it worked -- a Chinese waiter came over. However, the waiter interpretted Heather´s request as us wanting the guys at the next table to STOP smoking. So she went over to their table and told them to stop. we got the WORST death stares ever. UGH. I swear the guys started smoking even more. we could barely breathe at this point, let alone consider eating. So out of total frustration we high-tailed it outta there. We ended up at a Cuban restaurant... nice atmosphere - even had entertainment (Cheryl and I are convinced the MC was AB's Argentinean counterpart, appropriately decked out in white pants, white shoes and a red blazer). By the time we ate it was 1130pm... well that was when Heather, Cheryl and I ate... Arti and Bossmat, who ordered what we thought was a fairly basic meal choice of beans and rice had to wait and extra 45 minutes.. ridiculousness. All-in-all a very bizarre night.

On a personal note, Heather and I are suuuppppeeeeerrrr excited that both our siblings got engaged!!!!! (no, not to each other). Out of total coincidence Heather´s sister and my brother both got engaged last Thursday -- WOOT!!!!!!!

day 16, buenos aires

since our last update, we have settled into buenos aires nicely. yesterday, we got a bit of a late start adjusting to schedules and everyones morning routine. we had braekfast, then finally left the hostel at around 11. we spent about an hour searching for a tourist information office, and when we did find it, there was a sign that said "be right back" - 5 minutes later, we decided that a south american be right back might not be as immediate as we suspected. so, we walked back to the hostel, then walked over to the cemetary in recoleta.

people say that this cemetary is the main tourist attraction in buenos aires - kind of makes you wonder if a cemetary is the best thing to see in a city! it is similar to ones i have seen before in spanish colonies where the formerly rich and famous are buried with their families - lots of glass, marble and stone. one modern gravesite looked like the entrance to a club! very strange choice.

we went to find evita perons grave site, which took about half an hour. it was in a very nondescript location but was covered in tons and tons of flowers. this cemetary also had a lot of cobwebs and stray cats taking in the afternoon sun. some were a little bit creepy.

we had dinner at another cafe, and ate much better food than the night before. kavitha had a hamburgeusa, i had an arroz con pollo (my favourite latin american dish), cheryl and bossmat had an academica sandwich (bossmat{s without ham), and arti had her first empenadas (filled with creamed corn). after that meal, we rolled back to the hostel to get ready for the football match later on that evening.

the football match was the semifinal match for the south american cup (we think), featuring river plate and san lorenzo. it was insanely rowdy walking in, and i was shoved more than once. eeeesh. safety first? when we did get our seats, we did not leave them once - i had my first coke in ages, and they had some awesome candied peanuts. in terms of the game, the team we were cheering for (river plate) started off very strong and scored two goals almost immediately. however the reigning team (so we think) came back strong with two goals and tied the game. river plate played very sloppily in the second half. oy.

in addition to this, was the abundance of fireworks/sparkler launchers that people had! there were firemen all over the field with hoses ready to go in case a fire occurred. similarly, all the cheering was INSANE. in the upper decks, fans were jumping up and down and sitting in the lower deck, we could see that the upper deck was literally vibrating. (vibrating cement = interesting.) after the game finished, we realized that it was customary for the fans of the visiting team to leave first in order to avoid riots and fighting, so we had to wait for about 30 to 45 minutes before we could take off. the drive back to the hostel was much faster than it was to get there!

because we were craving churros and ice cream before we got to the venue, after the game we ended up at mcdonald{s (GASP!) and had some soft serve ice cream. delish! totally hit the spot! i was also impressed at how much mcdonalds has progressed with its mccafe venture. holy schmoly!

today we are going on a bus tour and doing some tango lessons. cant wait to flail!

more residual questions:

1) who is bartolome mitre?
2) where does one cut their hair in buenos aires?

the arrival of hooper, gal and davda in buenos aires

this morning, kavitha and i flew over to buenos aires from the puerto iguazu airport. LAN was not only on time (gasp! shock!), but had some awesome snacks and they even gave us some nifty airplane magnetic bookmarks! you can be assured that they are all stuck into kavithas lonely planet south america book.

we flew into the jorge newbury airport, which is the domestic airport in buenos aires, and lo and behold, as soon as we exited we were right on the water! what a great location! it cost us only $5.50 per person to get into town, and we were dropped right at the door of our hostel. hooray for this manuel tienda leon airport shuttle service.

we checked in (after a bit of kerfuffle) and were convinced to get a hostelling international membership. 43 argentine pesos, which is about $15, while at home the same membership costs $30. what gives?!

meanwhile, we had a bit of time to kill before arti, bossmat and cheryl got in, so we wandered about town trying to get a sense of the area. thank goodness, we came across carrefour and picked up some cookies and water. it felt like a slice of home and there were some major bargoons!

when we got back to the hostel, lo and behold, the girls were there with their backpacks! it was so surreal seeing them here in buenos aires. check-in took about 40 minutes (cheryl claims it was closer to 12 hours) because of all the various iterations of pricing, and we ended up getting two different rooms - kavitha and i in one, and arti, bossmat, and cheryl (from now on, referred to as ABC) in the other. we had some nice aussies and a lady from washington state in our room, while the other three ended up with a naked man with a towel.

speaking of towels, i am happy to report that i have found a replacement COTTON towel for my smelly quick dry towel. i am excited to use it and not smell worse after my shower than before my shower.

anyway, besides that, after the girls came in we went out for some beverages and a bruschetta sandwich (?) at a little cafe on florida street. this was followed by phone card purchases at farmacity (0.13 pesos per minute to canada - suspect?) and then dinner at a cafe down the street from our hostel. the meal left a little to be desired. i had a lacklustre turkey and tomato sandwich, while cheryl and kavitha had some ricotta cheese ravioli (their review: kavitha was hungry and it did the job - quasi.), arti had some fettucini with really lame tomato sauce, and then bossmat had perhaps the piece de resistance. the waiter brought her the wrong dish at first, which was fries, ham and egg, which did not jive seeing that it was not what she ordered, and that she is a vegetarian. so, the dish was sent back, and it was replaced with a tomato sauce with two raw eggs and several misplaced green peas. bossmats review: it did the job at the time, but now she is feeling some regrets.

at this point, i think we are all pooped from our flights and will get to bed soon. until tomorrow, goodnight!