IGUAZU FALLS!

Well, this place is unbelievable...seriously. ON a whim I decided to go with my new friend Ian up to Iguazu since i had to get my Brazilian visa stamped within the next week or so. So after my overnight terrible bus from Bariloche to Buenos Aires (which played probably the most ghetto video i´ve ever seen - it was likely a 1974 "C" list film from some latinamerican country full of terrible singing and even worse attire...and then they played the same horrid latinamerican music videos over and over and over!), I spent a day in BA, just taking it easy, meeting up with my friend Will from the Inca Trail, and then met a couple more of his buddies, Tim and Ian. 3 of us did a bike tour in the morning, and as I´d decided the night before to head to Iguazu, i did that night on another overnight bus. But this time I was flying back, no more buses!

So i got to Iguazu a bit later than i thought since there was an accident on the road. But arrived at the Hostel Inn which is one of the best hostels in Argentina! Just outside of Puerto de Iguazu, it had a huge pool, big open common areas, and little bungalows where my dorm was. I also ran into friends there from other areas on the "gringo trail" down here. Anyway, some guy i was sitting with at breakfast the next morning was also headed to the Argentinian side of the falls that day so Nick from New Zealand and I shared the day together there, exploring on our own rather than going with the tour from the hostel (more economical for us! look at me saving money ;) Anyway, I will let the pics speak for themselves. Took lots of them as it was impossible not to. You almost felt as if you were in a dream it was so surreal. i still can´t believe i was there! That night i was exhausted from a full day of walking and getting in a boat and driving straight into the falls! CRazy fun. We went into Garganta del Diablo ("devils throat") and the other parts. I think Iguazu, although not hte highest falls, is one of the widest in the world. Just breathtaking!

Got to experience something somewhat unique that night. Because it was full moon, I got to go on the full moon tour of the falls, a totally different experience, and also quite mind blowing. the pics didn´t turn out too well so I´m keeping them in my mind :) Next day I made it thru 2.5 hours on various buses and border crossings to get to the Brazilian side of the falls. Worth it, bc that was a different view and more amazing stuff! Saturday night our hostel had a big asado and mini show with Brazilian type dancers with large backsides. They have no shame about g-strings here people...even if they are "well endowed" back there. The guys were somewhat dumbfounded, ha!

So now i´m back in BA and have already done a tango dinner show with Irish Alison and her friend Sean, and last night went to this amazing drum show in some back warehouse. Just improve group making some crazy jams. Hippies, gringos and locals filled this place, freestyle dancing, whatever. It was great . I´ve met up with some friends that I met in south Chile, so we had a big group last night, some from my hostel too. Woo hoo! Should be a great rest of the week, assuming the rain stays away (yesterday it did but I still wnet and did some sightseeing!).

Cheers, and many blessings.

Bye bye Bariloche...

So I´ve been in Bariloche, Argentina the past 3 nights, and it is quite the beautiful place. It is nestled right in the Patagonia (though not too far south), and is on a lake in between loads of mountains. Pretty touristy place, full of lots of Brazileños and porteños (people from Buenos Aires), plus all of us backpackers from around the world. There are chocolate shops EVERYWHERE and omg they are so good. My fave is Mumushka :) This place is also well known for having the largest ski resort in the southern hemisphere, Cerro Catedral, though sadly i can´t say i visited it! There hasn´t been new snow since last week, and therefore I am not repeating my oh-so-fabulous experience of Los Penitentes again with bad snow and equipment that didn´t fit!

So what have I done? Well, the first night my 4 other friends from Pucón and I walked around the streets taking it all in, and had a nice dinner at a local spot. My steak was so so, yet another not great ARgentinian steak experience. When is it going to happen - that perfect bite?! Hoping in BA...anyway, it´s odd, they don´t sell alcohol in stores after 11pm here, which i guess is good, but then it forces you to go to a bar and pay almost as much for a pint of beer as i did for dinner! Which by the way was 17 pesos (the pint), or about $5.75. Pretty expensive for beer, but cheap for dinner and wine!

The 2nd day a girl I met from the UK, Madeline (who reminds me of Marissa! Happy birthday Mariss!!), and I went to Cerro Otto, and hiked to the top rather than taking the cable cars. Well, that was basically straight up for over an hour, so it was rough, and i was trekking thru snow in a t-shirt b-c i was so hot! Gorgeous views on top though, and worth it. Lucky for us, as we started our descent, we were picked up by 3 cute porteños who gave us a lift back to the centro. Nice! I walked around town a bit more, and bought a bottle of wine for the upcoming wine fiesta at my fantastic Hostel 1004 (which is so named for the apartment number on the 10th floor). That was a blast, and enjoyed a bit too much wine with some of my new and old friends. That then led to a night at South Bar with 3 Irish girls, 2 Scots, and loads of cute ARgentinians...

Yesterday i had a rude awakening at 8am for my all day visit to El Tronador, a huge mountain and glacier about 2 hours away. I sat in the bus almost all day with Alli and Elle, two British girls who were very sweet. We got out and walked around and had lunch, etc etc, and took in the sights. Last night I was ready for bed by 8pm, but made myself stay awake to figure out my situation with Buenos Aires. I am now taking a bus versus my Airpass flight since I didn´t book anything in time! It´s winter break and everyone apparently is traveling b-t here and there...so 19 hours from the time I leave i will be in the capital city! Oh boy! Overnight bus, sweet...but I have a "cama" seat so it´s not that bad :)

Alright, gotta go get the bus, Ill catch up more from BA! Enjoy the beautiful photos...having issues with flickr so the latest aren´t on there yet!

Valdivia and PUcon

After my restful stay at Happy House in Santiago, I made my way south to Valdivia, in Chile´s Lake District (by the way the rest of my happenings in Mendoza are posted below, also new). Valdivia is a pretty cool university town, though I wasn´t so sure after arriving on a Sunday evening, in the dark. I flew there, took a transfer to town, and landed at Airesbuenos Hostal, which really wasn´t my favorite place. A bunch of students live there full time, so it just wasn´t as well kept as I like. But alas, I had already been denied at one place and i didn´t have time to find another, so i stayed the night there. Well God has his funny ways of working, so although I was disappointed at the lodging situation, I was SO excited when I was walking out of my room only to notice a Bible next to one of the bunks. First sign of a Christian i´ve seen since i left Colombia. So i wrote a little note saying how encouraged I was to see it, and that i hoped to meet this person later that night...more on that later.

I rolled out sola into town, which was practically dead, but found a great place, Entrelagos, for dinner. IT´s famous for its chocolate and hot chocolate but i didn´t muster the appetite after my dinner, so i just took their word for it. Ended up meeting an American girl studying there, who two nights later met me for a beer at the Kuntsmann cerveceria. Nice! SO, went back to my hostal and read a bit downstairs. THe chilean students weren´t all that friendly or talkative ith me, and by that point i knew i was changing hostels the next day. BUT, along came john, the guy with the bible, and we chatted for a while. It was great to encourage and be encouraged. He had been needing a pick me up as well, so that was just totally the Lord working in His ways. Anyway, we hope to meet up in Buenos Aires. He is teaching English in Patagonia region, and is on vaca.

The next day I found a good hostel, adn the lady who ran is was super nice. she even drove me back to Airesbuenos to pick up my bags and take me back to her place. Awesome! Every Valdivian i met was like that - helpful, really nice, and didn´t expect anything in returnm even when offered. Soo i tooted around Valdivia a bit that day and what a change from the day before! There were tons of people walking around, and teh city was very much bustling with activity, even in teh drizzle and clouds. After i had had enough of being cold outside, i stumbled into Cafe Hausmann where i had honestly some of the BEST cake i´ve ever had - called Kuchen (the town was colonized by Germans). It was walnut goodness on top over yellow cake with a layer of cream in between. omg, w.y.p. So worth the calories! And while in the cafe, i recognized the only two other people staying in my hostel, two French girls. They were super nice as well, and we decided to meet up later that evening in the hostel to go grab dinner. Also in the cafe was another American girl eating with her Chilean friend from school. Totally reminded me of being in Spain studying, and made me quite nostalgic actually :( Oh to be young again! haha.

so Frenchies and I hung out next to the heater for a few hours in our hostel, then went out for a nice steak dinner at a nice restaurant recommended by hostel owner lady. It was kind of expensive for my budget, but a nice meal. still not the "perfect steak". The next day the 3 of us met up and lucky for us, the sun even made its appearance. We ventured to Niebla, abouta 20 minute busride away, where you go to the port and catch a ferry to two other islands, Corral and Isla Macera, both which had these really cool ruins b-c they were used as strongholds to protect Valdivia back in the 1600 and 1700s. Anyway, absolutely gorgeous and not what i was expecting! check out my photos...we ate lunch on Corral at this tiny little spot, and i nearly threw up when one of the girls found a worm in her fish. We had each ordered a different white fish and shared with each other. Thank the Lord that none of us got sick, but i was pretty close, even before i saw the worm. That said, it was good food! But disgusting after the fact. And we basically had to fight with the waitress to tell her we weren´t paying full price for the wormy fish. She finally conceded at half price! So we decided to head to the third island after walking around Corral, but were hesitant bc they said the last ferry was at 5 and we went over at 430. Ya, well, we think they forgot us, and before we went into panic mode after the sun went down, we decided to go with the local fisherman who offered to take us on his little boat back to Niebla. Thank God for him! And he wouldn´t accept our pay...

SO i got off and went ot the beer factory and the girls went back to the hostel. Good times and met my friend Teresa there for some deep discussion about life, family, and Christianity :) Took the bus yesterday morning here to Pucón and am enjoying my time here! Got in adn was flagged down by Claudio, who owns a hostel next to the bus station and arranged a tour for the afternoon from 2 to 8 where me and 6 others went around and saw views of the beautiful mountains, volcanos, Ojos del Caburgua (waterfalls that come right out of the earth bc the water travels underground for 5km!), and finally ended at a hot springs, Termas Los Pozones. soo nice! 5 pools all different temps. It was so fun getting in a bathing suit too ;) Then we all came back and Claudio cooked dinner for us while we drank way too much wine (basically i didn´t have any water to drink so just kept drinking wine...oops!)- We all had so much fun though, and when I all of a sudden decided to stagger back to my hostel by myself to go to be d(they were all staying at Claudio´s hostel and I was in a different one), they all sent a "search party" out to try and find me! haha. Claudio knew I was gone but they all thouight it´d be fun to go knock on the door of my hostel and ask for me at 1 in the morning. Tehehe.

So we planned to go to the park this morning for a hike, but hte rain has been going ALL DAY since late in the night last night. I have accomplished nothing today aside from this blog and my adventurous trek to the supermarket. I decided agianst zip-lining in the rain bc i wanted to not die. The main thing here is to climb the volcano, but with this weather you can´t do much at all. Shame, cuz i´m leaving tomorrow for Bariloche. It´s supposed to rain for like 4 more days too. Poo.

Okay, people need the computer, but here are some photo highlights!

catching up on a rainy day! Rest of Mendoza...

OMG do i have so much to catch up on! i last wrote (well, really wrote) when I had arrived into the centro in Mendoza. I actually spent another 4 days there, i was having such a good time. yes, that totalled 8 days in Mendoza when I planned for only 4 or so. Haha, thanks to Lindsay and Emil, Alison and Kate (my new friends I met in the hostel), and the mendocino boys, i couldn´t possibly leave! After walking around the city a bit and my wine tour, i had dinner that night with the most fabulous group of people at the opening of their friend´s restaurant, Karma. Indian food argentina style...food was only okay, but we drank loads of wine, therefore the pictures we took at the end were hilarious. I am now best friends with all of them of course, even though I think the youngest of the group was 37, and the oldest late 60s. Love it. came back to my hostel to run into my friend i met earlier that day and we proceeded to have a soda outside and some conversation, which led to me arguing with him about politics, being a Christian, 9-11, etc. So that ended quickly and i went to bed at 3am...with plans to get up an hour and a half later to go snowboarding. Well we all know that didn´t happen, but i did wake up at 6:30 thinking the bus that left half an hour before that i was suipposed to be on. I was kind of mad at myself though for taking the time to rent equipment, walk to the bus station and all that, when i just messed it up! Thankfully, "TIA" (this is Argentina) and i was able to do everything the next day! The onesy WOULD make its appearance! But before i go into Los Penitentes, that night me and the girls met up with our new argentinian friends, Oscar ("flaco" which means skinny) and Diego, who was a hottie. We had a couple beers then i made sure to go to bed early (soo responsible!).

Los Penitentes was a freakin bust. THe snow was absolute crap, the mountain was a piece, and the staff was kind of laqsidasical (ok no idea how to spell that one). Anyway, the one redeeming thing was that I met a very nice girl, Clare, from Australia. Funny story - so we´re sitting on the bus, trying to sleep, when more and more people keep coming on at each stop. I was already worried that i was using yesterday´s ticket, but figured i was in the clear bc i didn´t see any seat numbers on it. Oh but wait, in walks this 300 lb woman who taps me and says that i am in her seat. What? how could that be possible i ask?? SO being the stubborn gringa that i am, and fearing for Clare´s life sitting next to her, I asked to see her ticket...indeed she had seat 15 reserved! At this point (not even an hour into our 4 hour busride) i am thinking, mierda, i´m going to have to stand the rest of the time! Lucky for me, this nice military guy signalled that the seat next to him was open, so I abandoned Clare to the big Argentinian lady. And I thought I had the bad end of the stick having to move seats...hardly...even better, a guy on our bus caught on film the sight of little tiny Clare sitting next to this lady, which he showed us on our way back. We were roaring with laughter, it was hilarious.

My goal for the day on the mtn was to conquer the T-bar chair lift, which was honestly harder than any black diamond i have ever skied! For whatever reason, i could not seem to get going on that thing...and fell about 10 times before giving up. It was just not designed for a snowboarder. I did make it over the first hill only to fall on my arse and be dragged a while until i could release the thing from under my one leg (mind you this is to get to the TOP of the mtn, not the bunny slopes - why in the world would they put a t-bar there anyway?! and this was no normal t bar either...terrible). It was and is still the most UNcomfortable thing i´ve experienced...should´ve taken a picture of it...SO, to relieve my pain and angst, Clare and I had lunch, where i proceeded to gain some confidence by drinking a liter of beer, dark beer. Mmm. Oh, and it worked bc i managed to endure the horrendous flight up the mtn on T bar after that! Yessss. Not that the top was any better than the chunk, crusty bottom. But slightly. I at least took my pride back after the Argentians laughed at me for falling so many times...anyway, the day ended at 4pm and we took our bus back to Mendoza, this time much quicker bc no stops.

sooo, that night i got to experience my 2nd asado, with Flaco, cousin Seba, and other friend Leo, who was a cutie. They brought us to Seba´s house around 10, the girls starving, and then didn´t feed us til midnight! We were exhausted. Theyy don´t really know the concept of appetizers either, or even of offering to grab us something when they went to the store for more beer (or letting us know they were leaving!)...real cool guys, real cool. But again, worth the wait, it was fabulous meat. and finally a good steak from Argentina. Flaco was entertaining us with his impressions of Mick Jagger and some great dance moves, evidenced by that particular photo where he looks like a lunatic. Anyway, fun night. Are you getting tired of reading this yet? Well, if you´ve even made it this far, kudos to you. BUt fyi, this blog is probably more for ME than for YOU, since i´ve not been journaling much at all! shame on me...

so the next day, Alison and I went for a wine/bike tour, which probably wasn´t the best idea after me still being sore from riding the T bar - i mean, what could be a better idea than sitting on a hard bike seat? Ya, well, i tried my best not to think about it, which was hard for the first leg when i hadn´t had any wine yet! anyway, i was more scared about riding/falling off a mountain bike than i was about the bruises that would be added to my groin area. anyway, it turned out to be a super fun day, and we met two other clansmen (from Ireland) who joined us, Shevanne and Neil. We were chagrined to find out though that we had been duped - we thought all the wine tastings were included in the tour, but they weren´t!! so that sucked, but we still went to three bodegas and the olive oil factory (again for me, but this time i didn´t even get to hear the tour in English, we just sampled). Ended up hanging at the 3rd bodega a while, getting a bottle and soaking up the sun. then we made the last stop for some bad chocolate (how can chocolate be bad! it was - just lacked flavor. booo). We didn´t technically have lunch so we were all looking forward to a good dinner.

Alison and i met up with Kate the Aussie again, and went to a nice steak place, where they totally butchered Kate´s order. She sent it back (hesitantly) and of course was then given an even worse piece of meat. She was not a happy camper, and actually complained about it the whole time! haha Alison and i were happy with our meat (but i still wasn´t of the opinion that this was the best steak in teh world...maybe when i go to Buenos Aires? hope so). Then Flaco and another new friend (who was a TOTAL catch and whose name i forget) met us at the restaurant to share wine, then head to the boliches, the discotechs. We didn´t like the first one so ended up at some ¨rustic¨ place where there was a GREAT PInk Floyd coverband - and not in some cheesy Spanish accent coverband singing. Plain good. They later cleared out the tables and started the dance music! i was a happy camper. Danced the night away til 7am, though i probably had to force out a 3rd amd 4th wind at times. Hung out with more of Flacos friends, and Kate and hot guy got together. Darn ;). Anyway, i knew better than to try and sleep for a couple hours before my bus, so i just packed up and headed to the station, had to pay extra for an earlier bus, but i wasn´t about to hang out in the sketchy bus station! So after 8 days I finally left Mendoza, one of my fave places! Some of my pics are below, but of course, check flikr.

Photo Montage

So I won´t have time to blog at the moment, gotta get outta Santiago to catch my flight to Valdivia, in Chile´s Lake district. I have been taking it easy past day b-c of my last night out in Mendoza resulting in zero sleep. it´ll happen when you go out til 7am...but being my first all nighter, i am recovering just fine. Slept 3 hours on the bus from Mendoza to Santiago, and am staing in the fabulous Happy House Hostel here. Very serene! Enjoy photos from wine tours, more asados with our new Mendocino friends (and we seriously ate at midnight and were STARVING! the boys said, "these girls eat well". You´re darn right we do when you don´t feed us til midnight!). As usual, check out all my photos at flickr link on left.

MENDOZA

My birthday! In the car, roadtripping w/ my sweet beanie


i know, i've been so attentive to the blog lately, aren't you proud? Welll, this city they call Mendoza is fabulosa! Thanks to my amazing hosts, Lindsay Davidson and her Hungarian beau Emil, I have had a fantastic time so far...and I keep pushing back the day I want to leave! I arrived Friday night after a long 8 hour bus ride thru the Andes. Beautiful sights, but cramped quarters...met some nice Brits along the way, and got to watch 21 Blackjack - in English! Made me pine for Vegas...but alas, I am in a better place in many ways. Arrived to the bus station and Linds and Emil picked me up and off we went to grab a handcrafted brew at Antares Brewery in the centro de Mendoza. Stayed there for a couple then came back to their barrio, Chakras (sounds kinda cool - it is!) for dinner. Unfort Lindsay and I were disappointed in the beef we ordered for dinner, but nonetheless it wasn't terrible.

Saturday was a doozy - the entire centro was closed off b/c of some taxi driver strike, which then led to a bus shut down or something. Go figure - the taxi drivers wanted more protection b/c one had just gotten attacked - 5tth time in 2 weeks. yikes-o! So we didn't make it to the centro, but almost as exciting, we made it to "Jumbo" the enormous supermercado where Lindsay and I proceeded to shop for loads of groceries and wine! After that, we enjoyed the beautiful sunny day by putting a table outside of their vodka distillery (checkout Primo vodka if you can find it!) and ate a lunch consisting of fresh bread, ham, various cheeses. Yummmm. They gave me a tour of their small distillery - it's amazing what 2 people can do! They bottled 15,000 all by themselves! After that we came back to their apartment and enjoyed a lazy afternoon, followed by a raging dinner party that night. About 10 people, my age and up, drinking way too much red wine to still be good for you, and enjoying more red meat, salad, fennel and our very own mashed potatoes w/ bacon, cheddar and chives I believe. I helped Lindsay throw it all together, and the bacon was my idea ;) It was a hit! Anyway, after I tried about 5 types of red wine ,all mixed together in my mind by that point (between Temparanillo, Syrah, Merlot, etc), we called it a night...

So yesterday was faboo as well. Lindsay and emil's friends, Karren and Randy, met us at the house and we all went for a hike, along with their daughter Isabella (12), super trooper. We drove about half an hour to arrive at the rocky mountains (not quite as picturesque as our Rockies though). We trekked uphill for about 45 mintues before half the group decided to stop. Being the hard core hiker than I am, and 2 weeks after machu Picchu, I couldn't let the men think us women were weak or feeble, hence I joined Randy (pretty much a mountain goat by the speed he climbs!) and Emil (who although dressed in his Ralph Lauren gaucho pants, flat leather boots and vest looked like he came straight out of an African safari or Conde Nast traveler magazine - oh, and lit a cigar on our way down, even better) a novice hiker. It was a bit more difficult to the top, but a pretty view looking over the Cordilleras and with views of the Andes and a large reservoir with aqua colored water. The way down though was the most exciting. We met up with the girls and took a new way down, and almost thought we had to turn around when we stumbled upon steep cliffs, more than once. We knew we were toast when we saw the metal loop that only rappelers were supposed to hook into! Luckily we searched around for an alternative way down, which we eventually found. all in all a fun hike, full of adventure, and topped off with an Andes beer, which Coors Lite could put ot shame - but after hiking 3 hours tasted no less than the Champagne of Beers itself!

After the hike was over, around 3:30pm, we returned to the apartment to hot showers and Emil's over-the-top "asado" - the Argentinian bbq. No sauce, no fancy accoutrements, just really really good meat (that we picked up from the butcher shop earlier that day) seasoned with just lemon and lots of salt. We had all pork ("cerdo") including costilla (ribs), chorizo (sausage, as you all know), and the best piece of meat - punto de espalda (the shoulder). Oh, and I tried my first "black pudding" - as I will have to get used to moving to England. Not bad actually ,though I didn't ask what type of meat it actually was, as I didn't want to know...just a cute little black sausage looking thingy. I also helped with the tomato/green onion salad, and we had mashed taters again. Mmm mmm goodness. That was the huge meal of hte day, and along with wine and some Primo vodka, made for a very relaxing Sunday :) I am literally being spoiled here!

today I finally ventured into the city (by myself), and enjoyed walking around town, checking out the day tours available, and enjoying the sunny weather (again!). I managed to squeeze into a wine tour that took us to 2 decent wineries, 1 olive oil factory, and a church that had a retrato of the Virgen de las Costillera (she watches over the vineyards). I met a really sweet Mexican girl and her sister and boyfriend who I may go snowboarding with on wednesday. nice! Speaking of which, I rented some sweet equipment today including a onesy ski jumper (the likes of which probably made its debut in the States cerca 1994), some hypercolor guantes (gloves) and some sweet goggles (they tried to sell me on the old school 80s Oakleys but I had to decline and pay the extra 10 pesos for the goggles to save my dignity, not that I look that hot in those either...). i am really looking forward to getting in the snow! I had such a disappointing ski season with only 2 trips this year, so I'm ready!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the latest update...I'm thinking of leaving Mendoza on thursday for hte long busride back to Santiago ;( I could stay here much longer though, but I must press on!

Cheers,
Kaitlin

PS. As I've mentioned many times before, check the Flickr link the left for my updated photos - and hey, i spent lots of time labeling the latest ones, so take a look and read the captions! I'll try to post some more from the hike and Mendoza soon...

photo highlights

Monasterio Santa Teresa (Arequipa, peru) - where the nuns are still cloistered FOR LIFE! Ahh, no thanks. Though mom swore I was going to be a nun a few years ago...hardly ;)

Us w/ baby Lucas Bua-Levine. We gifted him this darling sweater set - full with beanie, gloves and booties (not shown). You can tell he's thrilled about the rainbow print [which by the way in Peru does NOT mean the same as it does in the States...let's hope it doesn't in Chile either...]

Typical "huaso" (think gaucho) dance in Santiago Plaza de Armas

At the fabulous Hacienda de los Lingues - one of 20 homes in the world still owned by original family since the 1500s

Ta Da!!
here are a few from my road trip with mama. She was fun to travel with, although we yelled at each other a few times about directions ;) Neither one of us are ever wrong, of course...and wait til you see the fantastic French braid i did for her. After all those years when she did mine for my elementary school pictures, sitting pretty in my pink dress from Hong Kong, I was finally able to repay her :()