Last Days in the Americas (Chile)

We woke up lazily the next morning, and got ready for our flight to Santiago, Chile: our last destination for the American leg of our trip.  The flight left in the early afternoon, so we were easily able to have our breakfast, pack, and lounge a bit before heading off in a cab to the airport.  We got to the airport nice and early, checked in, and passed the time watching some tv on Jared's laptop.  

The flight was amazing, in that we got fed...well.  I am one of those people who love plane food, so I was siked when I saw them serving up lunch.  We had a quick stop off in Puerto Mont, but didn't have to get off the plane, and then got fed again on the second leg of the flight!  

When we arrived in Santiago, we hopped on a bus, and headed into the city.  Our hostel was, thankfully, close to the bus drop off, so we were able to quickly walk over.  After a bit of unpacking, we arranged for a tour of a vineyard for the next day, and then set out to walk the city a bit ad grab some cheap dinner.  

The next morning, we woke up early, ate the free hostel breakfast, and walked into the center of town for a free walking tour.  I loved the one in Rio, and after this second one, was not disappointed.  We learned all about the capital, from its founding to its more recent tumultuous history, including those fun details, like the coffee shops/strip joints that popped up in an effort to increase coffee consumption, and that the Nuts 4 Nuts guy is actually Chilean!  Jared left a bit before I did, and I got to walk up to a hill with an old castle on it, showing great views of the city from its lookout.  After a bit of meandering, I doubled-timed it back to the hostel to make the vineyard tour we scheduled for that late afternoon.

We got picked up by a tourist van, and driven to another location, got on a bigger tourist bus, and drove about an hour and a half outside of the city to the Valparaiso valley, where the Concha y Toro vineyard was located.  The tour was pretty cool, set on a gorgeous piece of land with trees imported from all over the world, and a man-made lake with lilly pads.  The fields had been divided into large and small plots for each distinct type of grape, including some grapes we had never heard of and even the ancient Carmenére grape, that they thought was extinct until 1996, when a French scientist studied the grape in an effort to see why Chilean "merlot" was so different from the rest of the world's; pretty cool stuff!  We got to walk through the cellars where huge barrel upon huge barrel are stored, some wines costing hundred of dollars.  We also got to taste a few of the wines, and browse the gift shop, stocked with all the wines, including the Carmenére, which I bought, sorry Mom and Dad for not shipping any home :/ At the end of the tour, we got back on the bus, and headed into Santiago, where we got dropped off at the hostel.  We went out again to grab dinner, watched some tv, and went to bed.  Jared had to wake up at 2 am for his flight, and shockingly quietly got up; we said out tired goodbyes, and he headed back to the US.  My flight wasn't until that evening, so I spent the morning eating and prepping my stuff, and set out for the bus...taking a wrong turn and turning what should have been a 10 minute walk into a 30 minute walk...yes, I had done the walk before.  No, I don't know how I screwed it u;, I swear the streets moved, but was still able to make it I the airport in good time to head to Australia!

Penguin Fever (Chile)

From Puerto Natales, Argentina, we took a late morning bus to Punta Arenas, Chile.  The border was simple, and it was again nice to not have to think about the car importation.  The ride was easy, and we napped a bit, before arriving in the small, southern town along the Strait of Magellan.  We walked around a bit, shopping for hostels, before settling on Hostel Magallan.  The only real tourist attractions that we knew of in Punta Arenas were the airport and the island of penguins.  To our disappointment, the season for sailing to the island, within the strait, had not yet arrived, and so the main attraction was out of our reach; there was another option to see penguins, but it cost a bit over $100, and sounded like you spent the majority of the day in the car driving.  Bummed, and unsure of what we would do for the next day, we set out for a quick walk around town.  On our way, we stopped into a few travel agencies, and discovered a much cheaper option for what we wanted!    We booked for the next afternoon, and were able to relax the rest of the day.  We ate dinner at the grocery store's pre prepared food bar, and headed back to the hostel for the night.

The next morning, we woke up and ate the best hostel breakfast we have had.  There was pound cake with strawberry sauce, artistically drizzled over, and powdered sugar, artisanal bread with jam and butter, 2 kinds of yogurt and oatmeal.  We spent probably 2 hours getting our money's worth.  Our tour wasn't until the afternoon, so I set out to see the city cemetery, which I had heard was quite interesting.  It was a bit like the cemetery in Buenos Aires, but on a much smaller scale.  One of the most interesting parts was to see all the graves of people from European descent: pioneers, engineers, sailors, and explorers, all with large grave plots.  After a bit of a stroll, I headed back to the hostel to wait for our pickup.  

At about 3pm, our van arrived full of other tourists eager to catch a glimpse of some penguins.  We drove out of town for about an hour until arriving along a beach.  After a short walk toward the water, we looked out through a small wooded barrier and saw...penguins!!! Holy moly are they cute!!  Especially when they walk!  Eek I just wanted to scoop one up and keep it!  There were probably about 30 of them congregated on the beach, paying us no mind.  After about 30 minutes, the penguin group split up, and half started walking inland.  We got to see them waddle  in a single file through the fields to some unknown location.  After about an hour of oohing and ahhing, we walked back to the van and headed to the hostel, our penguin curiosity satisfied.  That night, we had dinner with a surprisingly good box of wine, and watched tv until bed.

Hiking Patagonia's Torres del Paine (Chile)

The morning after our glacier hike, we hopped on another bus to Puerto Natales, which was to be our base from which to hike in Patagonia.  The bus ride was again nice and easy, and took about 5 hours.  We got dropped off at the bus terminal, and immediately started shopping around at the terminal for a bus to take us to Torres del Paine, the mountain range we were to hike.  The woman at one station told us the only next bus left at 3pm, about an hour and a half later, and that her friend could quick drop us off at a hostel to store some things we wouldn't need, and we could haul butt to make the bus.  Against my better judgment, we got into this stranger's car, and lucky enough, got out about 5 minutes later at an actual hostel, and not a back alley to be raped and pillaged.  We quickly tried to repack our belongings, but after a few minutes realized we were a bit too crunched on time, and should really take the night to figure out our stuff...thank god, it would have been disastrous in the end had we left with no proper planning.  We booked ourselves in for the night at Alojamiento y Buses Maria Jose, and were able to breath a bit.  

First things first, we had to get Chilean money.  We went out in search of an exchange place, got some cash, and walked around the town.  It seemed like, for the most part, this town was very much geared toward trekkers.  There were camping and hiking stores everywhere.  We did some browsing looking for warmer clothing for Jared, without luck.  Next we found a store to rent us warm sleeping bags, as ours are really just for warmer weather.  Next, we found a couple groceries stores, and after a bit of back and forth between the two, got the cheapest options for food for the next four days; Jared stuck to tuna for his meals, bread, mayo, lots of trail mix, cookies, and gummy bears (and excellent choice), and I got tuna, ham, cheese, mayo, crackers, yogurt and 2 cereal bars, and trail mix.  We obviously wanted to bring enough food for all the days, but not so much that carrying it on our backs would be a burden.  After our major tasks we done, we headed back to the hostel to arrange our belongings, and eat.  Jared bought spaghetti and sauce at the grocery store for dinner, and proceeded to cook AND EAT the ENTIRE 400g bag of pasta.  I opted to go out for a quick sandwich and warm soup.  That night, we showered and prepped the last few things for our hike.

I have to say, I have never camped before; I mean, we've slept in the tent, and had to live somewhat with the bare minimum at some points on this trip, but I had never done anything where I had to live and eat out of my bag in the wild.  I was pretty nervous about this trek.  Especially given that Jared was so gung-ho about it.  We had been told that the hike is a 4-5 day endeavor, and he was pretty determined that he could squeeze the whole thing into 3 days.  Also, you know when you're at the gym in a crappy T-shirt with holes and old sports shorts, and everyone around is in Nike, Adidas, and Lululemon, with their iPods and pedometers.  That's what I felt like...the person with the 10 year old high school gym T-shirt.  Everyone has such awesome sooped-up gear, and just really looked the part of hiker.  I was in a bit over my head.  

Never the less, the next morning, we had a bit of a late start, and had to haul over to the bus station to make our ride to the Torres del Paine National Park.  The ride took about 2 hours, and dropped us off at the park entrance, where we had to pay a $36 entrance fee (tourism stuff is expensive when you continually do it day after day).  We caught a ride about 10 minutes into the park to the first "refugio" stop.  Unsure of exactly what to do, but following the crowd, we grabbed our backpacks and got off in the middle of a field surrounded by mountains.  There was a small cabin, where we were directed out to the camping area, basically just a field.  No idea where the trails were or where exactly to go, we set up our tent, put on our layers, and packed up a small bag with snacks, water, and more layers...I did at least; Jared left with his pockets full of trail mix and his water bottle in hand.  We found the trail relatively easily, and started our first trek.  As we ascended the face of one of the mountains, my shin splints started acting up, and just before hitting my breaking point...maybe 30 minutes into our first hike, I popped a hefty 800mg dose of Advil and prayed I wouldn't be able to feel anything from the waist-down in about 30 minutes.  The Advil did the trick, and after a lunch of tuna, mayo, and crackers, we were back on our way.  That first trek was a crazy mix of weather; at times we were stripped down to our thinnest layers, and minutes later it would start raining with strong winds, requiring us to stop and put on all our warming layers again.  At one point, Jared actually took his pants of to remove his long-johns.  We walked across the sides of mountains with landslides, hopped rock to rock across rivers, meandered through fields of boulders, and forests of dead trees, and trudged through calf-deep snow on that first day.  The final point was a lookout at the top of the mountain.  It opened up to an aquamarine lake (the pictures for some reason do not show the lake's true color well), overlooked by the pride-and-joy of the park, the Torres del Paine.  According to Jared, who had done some research, the Torres were formed by both volcanic as well as glacial influences.  The lookout was amazing, and after taking pictures, we sat awhile eating our trail mix and taking in the sight.  Unfortunately, it was pretty frigid with bitterly cold winds up there, so we couldn't sit still for too long before getting uncomfortable.  When we satisfied our senses, or just got too cold, we made out way back down the mountain side.  By the time we got back to the level of our camp, we had hiked 8 hours, 19 kilometers, and ascended to 886 meters.  Not bad for our first day, but we were pooped! And our feet killed!  We threw off our shoes, and threw on our flip flops, despite the cold; had dinner, tuna for him, ham and cheese crackers for me, and got into bed at about 8pm for a surprisingly good sleep inside the tent.  

The next morning, Jared woke me up by laying on top of me in his sleeping bag at about 7am, but by some miracle, I fell back asleep as he packed up all his stuff and ate his tuna and bread breakfast.  He finally wretched me awake at about 9am, a bit later than we had wanted to start our day.  After a quick yogurt breakfast for me, we packed up camp, packed our big backpacks and headed out for my most dreaded part of the trip.  I  preemptively took Advil again, which effectively kept my shins at bay for the morning.  About 10 minutes in, we finally hit the start of the second day's trek, and I was already to finish.  The walk, thankfully, had more even land; definitely with hills and valleys, but nothing like the climb from the day before.  There were a lot more rivers to cross, with the rocks a bit difficult to nimbly hop across with the extra 40 pounds on our backs.  Might I add, Jared was carrying our heavy tent, you wouldn't necessarily think a tent would be heavy, but ours was; so props to him. There were a lot more breaks that day, but thankfully, the weather was absolutely perfect.  The sun was shining all day, and the sky was clear.  We wore our lightest layers and still sweat through everything, but the cold breeze balanced out the heat well.  Given all the streams, fresh water was a breeze, so we didn't have to worry about carrying extra water (thank God!).  The views that day were spectacular.  All day we walked along a beautiful light blue lake with snow capped mountains in the background; each step got more amazing than the last.  We stopped for lunch, of tuna and ham and cheese, at a refugio, and to my disdain, still had to walk another 2 hours to our camp ground.  By that point, my shoulders, back, and legs were actually, audibly, screaming at me with every step.  A bit after the lunch though, we walked into a pebble beach on the lake.  We decided to take a quick break and laid on the ground, listening to the pond lap against the stones, and taking a minute the really enjoy the magical scene surrounding us.  Unfortunately, we couldn't just camp there all night, so we got up after a bit, and continued our march.  Around 5pm, we finally arrived at the second campsite.  We had wanted to continue, both to get a bit more distance under our belts along the W, and because this camp site was free.  Granted, there were no "accommodations" like the other camp sites: showers, running water, a restaurant, in case you needed to buy anything, etc, but we didn't mind in the least.  We had our tuna dinner, and that night was probably a record bedtime for Jared; I believe he got into bed at 6:40pm.  We had walked a total of 16.5 km that day, entirely with our packs on, so needless to say, we needed out rest.  

That night, sleep did not come as easily as it had to night before, but nevertheless, we got up about half past 7am, had our breakfast, me yogurt and a cereal bar, Jared his tuna and bread, and packed up a small bag for our first hike of the day.  We were to complete the middle leg of the W, a 6 hour hike in total, and then pack up camp and walk another 2.5 hours to our last camp site.  The morning started off fine, we ascended in between the two major mountain peaks.  Maybe an hour or so into the hike, a light rain started up.  Not so bad.  Then the wind; much stronger than the day before, we actually swayed and occasionally had to grab onto the nearest tree or rock and wait out the gust before being able to continue.  We saw a few other hikers at the beginning of the trek, but for the most part we were solo.  Two hours in, the rain was really coming down, and the temperature was icy cold.  We got to a campsite that was completely barren, save a small shelter, made of twigs layered on top of one another.  It was just tall enough for us to crawl under, and we had a quick break from the walk and rain, and ate some trail mix.  We expected to see some of the other trekkers come up from behind us, but no one ever appeared, and we realized that we were the only 2 idiots who had continued despite the weather.  By this point, we were about 90% wet, but got up to finish off the the trek.  About 10 minutes later, the wind and rain and cold had pounded us enough, and visibility was poor anyway, so we decided to turn back to camp.  The way down was pretty miserable. We were completely soaked through and freezing at that point.  FYI, jeans are a poor choice of pants for hiking...in the rain.  After a bit though we stopped being able to feel our legs and feet, so that helped.  When we got back to the camp site, everyone we had seen on the trail before was huddled under the small roofed area, giving us looks of pity and disapproval.  "What were you thinking?", was plastered across everyone's face.  A kind hearted trekker had taken our bags under the roof, and restaked our tent down after it had blown away.  We took off our soaking, freezing clothes, put on dry clothes, and buried ourselves within our sleeping bags, trying to warm up.  In the end, our body heat and the sleeping bags combined took several hours to warm us up, but eventually, we were not so miserable.  Unfortunately, the rain an wind never let up, and out window to pack and head to the last leg of the W closed.  We didn't mind too much though, as getting out of our sleeping bags was the last thing we wanted to do that day.  We crossed out fingers, hoping the next days weather would be better, and hibernated.

The next morning was better; still quite chilly and windy, but not actively raining.  We packed up and walked about 3 hours to our last camp site.  The views weren't quite as spectacular that day; the fog and snow at the higher elevations restricted our view of ye mountains.  The lakes weren't as blue as they had been, due to the rain, but the terrain was wonderful; except for one hill that was inappropriately steep to have to climb with our packs.  The rest of the walk was a breeze; a few pit stops for breaks, and we reached the last campsite.  A total of 7.6 km for that day.  Originally, we had hoped to arrive the day before and complete the last leg of the W on the 4th morning of hiking, return to the last campsite and leave that early afternoon.  Unfortunately, as we were sleeping-bag-bound the day before, we were unable to finish the last leg before our boat out.  Granted, we could have spent the whole day hiking and go out the next day, but, if you haven't noticed, a running theme of this trip is our limitations on time, so instead, we opted to head out that day.  Unbeknownst to us, we arrived perfectly on time.  The catamaran leaving to take trekkers back to the entrance and buses was to leave 30 minutes after we got there, giving us just enough time for a quick lunch of...drum roll...tuna.  The boat arrived and took us on a quick ride, dropping us off and a small cafe, where our bus was waiting to return us to Puerto Natales.  

Hiking Patagonia was both a stunning as well as physically exhausting experience.  In total, we hiked 49 kilometers, over 3 days, with awe inspiring views.  Definitely as must for the avid hiker.  We were not in the end able to complete the whole W, and I'm pretty sure it is near impossible to do the whole thing in 3 days, but I loved the experience, and can now say I have camped!

That evening, we showered and did some much needed sink laundry, rearranged and replaced out packs.  Dinner that night was pasta from the grocery store, and the 4 extra cans of leftover tuna; not my finest culinary moment.  After a bit of relaxing, we headed to bed, to leave the next morning

Los Glaciares National Park (Argentina)

The flight to El Calafate was short and easy, and we both got a nap.  Upon arriving, we booked a $10 bus ride into town, for a 15 minute drive; a pretty huge ripoff, but we did at least get dropped off right in front of the hostel, MyHotel.  The place was actually nice, and blasted the heat!  We settled into our dorm room, and ran out in search of a way to visit the Glacier National Park the next day.  After stopping into several companies, and realizing they all provided the same trip for the same price, we stumbled into Hielo y Aventura, a company, I figured, would charge a lot more, since their advertisements were all over, and the office was nicer and better staffed than the rest.  Luckily, not only were they the same price, they accepted credit cards, which no one else did, and had an extra trekking trip, called Big Ice, allowing us to delve deeper into the glacier, and spend more time exploring its surface.  We settled on that, and paid a whopping $200 for it.  Our next mission was to buy a bus ticket out of town the day after the glacier trek; we found the bus terminal and got information easy enough, but had to wait to buy the tickets, as we didn't have our passports on hand.  So we put it off until later.

This town was adorable.  The shops and restaurants all looked like little cabins.  Neither of us have ever been to Vale or Aspen or the sort, but we are sure El Calafate, Argentina could be straight out of either.  

There were a bunch of trekking equipment stores, so we browsed a bit; I got some wool socks, and Jared has been toying with the idea of getting a down jacket, but didn't in the end.  We grabbed dinner at a great empanada place, quick ran to buy our bus tickets finally, and went back to the hostel and heat!  

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hostel, and at about 7:30 a bus from Hielo y Aventura picked us up for our glacier trek.  The Glacier National Park is pretty big with tons of glaciers throughout, but the main attraction is Perito Moreno, a wall of ice that can be easily seen from a built up lookout point.  We spent about an hour walking the catwalk in front of the two faces of Perito Moreno, even getting to hear the crack, as if from a close bolt of lightening, of ice breaking, and see parts of the ice wall fall into the water below.  The lake, Lago Argentina, was a beautiful aquamarine color, they called "milky water", given its color by the runoff, containing sediments, from the glacier ice.  After walking the rampard, we got back on the bus to take a boat across the lake, and trek the glacier.  

The guide was informative; talking about how the glacier was formed, and different properties of the lake and park.  When we arrived at the glacier, after a short hike, we strapped on crampons, and were able to walk on top of the glacier.  Our group had 9 people and 2 guides.  We walked in a single file line, through the endless crevices and chasms, revealing the clearest, most translucent, and pure blues.  It really seemed like the surface of the glacier was white, even dirty in some places, from debris from the surrounding mountains, but the hidden inside depths were blue.  It was pretty stunning.  Right before lunch, we found a small cave that had been formed, and Mission Impossible style, scaled the solid ice walls, over a stream of water, through to the other side.  The inside of the cave was blue, like I can't even really describe.  There is already a picture up, and it really is true to the shade of blue.  Lunch was prepared for us by the hostel and consisted of a drink, apple, ham and cheese sandwich, and an alfajor.   

In total, we spent about 3 hours on the surface of the glacier, and it was a pretty neat experience.  It seemed like a dessert of ice surrounded by mountains.  Some areas were smooth and undulating, with sudden blue splits in the ice that seemed to go endlessly deep, while other parts were treacherous and sharp, like a jagged forest of menacing ice.  Not sure why different parts of the glacier form differently.  By the end, our legs were a bit tired from the crampons.  We hiked back to the area where the boats were waiting, and after a bit of coffee to warm up, finished our glacier trip.

Back in El Calafate we showered and headed to bed.

Buenos Aires (Argentina)

After accidentally missing our bus to Argentina, the rest of the trip was a breeze.  We took a nice nap on our first bus, hopped on a boat, and got to watch sunset in the water, and finally, back on a bus for a quick last leg into Buenos Aires.  Thankfully, we had strategically located a hostel close to the bus drop off, because it was about midnight when we finally arrived.  The hostel was nice enough, another Lime House Hostel; I think that is one f the most common names for a hostel.  We located out beds, and almost immediately went to sleep.  

The next morning, we had serious tourism to do.  After a hearty hostel breakfast, we first went to the Plaza de Mayo, with the cathedral, built in an oddly Roman fashion, with Corinthian pillars and all and the President's pink palace (see Evita movie circa 1997).  The inside if the cathedral was actually pretty neat, with the remains of San Martin draped in the Argentine flag and guarded by 2 uniformed men.  The inside of the President's palace was pretty cool too...just kidding.  Quick breeze by the Manzana de las Luces (the oldest building, formerly of the government, in Buenos Aires) and the obelisk, and we made our way for lunch.  I know it sounds like we had just eaten breakfast, but with the walk to our lunch spot included, it was perfect timing for some famous empanadas at San Juanino.  The weather was gorgeous, and the food was cheaper take-away, so we ate in a nearby park.  After, we attempted to go to the National Museum of Fine Arts, but it was unfortunately closed, so we just walked around the area snapping some shots of an unconventional bridge and a huge silver flower.  There is an absolutely stunning cemetery close by with the remains of Evita, along with the wildly rich and famous of Argentina.  It was pretty incredible to walk through all of the house-sized graves and monuments made for the dead, and I've decided where I plan to be buried.  After all that walking, we parked it for a minute at a Starbucks for free iced water and coffee.  Exhausted, but aware of our serious time limitation in Buenos Aires, we wretched ourselves up, and hauled it over to Palermo, the hip neighborhood.  Unfortunately, I think the area is not really a tourist attraction, in that there isn't anything besides the vibe that is attractive.  Granted, it did seem like a very cool place, lots of shops, restaurants etc, but not really anything that we could take in, in 10 minutes.  After we walked around a minute, realizing we really didn't have enough time to enjoy the neighborhood, we ran back to the subway and our area.  

I quick did some sink laundry, as my only dress was in dire need of a good washing after wearing it for 5 nights straight of tango lessons.  I quick washed some other things up, and we both showered for our night out!  We were lucky enough to be in Buenos Aires at the same time as one of our friends, Yvette, we had met on the boat from Panama to Colombia, and then again, briefly, in Cusco as we were leaving.  She was in town for a bit, and we arranged to catch a tango show with her.  She organize it all, and we got picked up at a hostel to go to Complejo Tango, a lesson, dinner, and tango show!  Jared and I were pretty pumped about building on the small amount of tango we had already learned; unfortunately, it really was the most basic and simple step to accommodated the amount of people, and the fact that people did not necessarily know one another, making the intimacy of tango awkward.  Nevertheless, it was fun.  After our lesson, we had a good dinner of steaks, Jared had a pumpkin ravioli, and unlimited, yes, unlimited bottles of wine!  As dessert came, the lights dimmed, and we got to watch a fantastic tango show, with the dancers weaving throughout the crowd, and occasionally bringing people up to dance with them.  All three of us got to go up, and we all had a great time.  After the show, Yvette, her friend, Gavin, and I all went out to Palermo for one last drink.  

The next day we woke up, and headed out to the airport for Patagonia!

Buenos Aires was wonderful, and we both wish we had more than one day to spend there.  But, given the time we had, we made the best of it, and saw a lot in a small amount of time.  It is definitely a place to which I'd like to go back.

Montevideo (Uruguay)

I should put a disclaimer on this post.  It will probably be filled with a lot of information that seems useless to the majority of people reading, as you have never lived or even been to Montevideo.  I lived here as a teenager, and so was probably inappropriately excited to come back to this small, relaxed, quiet city, with an affinity, bordering on obsession, to Mate, a love of all things beef, and an explosive night life.  I contemplated actually putting this post under my own thoughts, but then the parts most of you are interested in, would be missed.  So anyway, feel free to skim...

As we drove into Montevideo I tried my hardest to shuffle through my memory.  The streets seemed familiar to me, and distinct from any other place we had been, but I wasn't sure if that was because I was trying to make it familiar, or because it actually was.  Anyway, it looked just like every other city we had been in to Jared.  I think I got most excited as we drove down the Rambla, along the ocean, and I spotted a small, dinky carvinal that I spent countless weekends going to, and riding the dangerous Rock and Samba, a ride that basically tried to buck you off like a bully, by spinning and then stopping and bouncing, but there is no safety strap to keep you in, and to add to the element of unsafety, people do tricks and handstands while on the ride.  I know it doesn't make any sense to people that have never seen one, but I give a nod of nostalgia to all those who lived down here and experienced the awesome Rock and Samba ride.  We drove around to several hostels before finding the right price, and settled in.  Our purpose in Montevideo was to sell the car, so first we looked up how to get help from the embassy, which we could not elicit until the next day, leaving the rest of our afternoon free.  First things first, my old house!!!!  We drove to my old neighborhood, which wasn't too far away from where we are staying, by Ciudad Vieja.  I sat outside a bit, took some pictures, which the guard later told me wasn't allowed, and pointed out everything to Jared.  Man, I missed that house; so many pranks, late nights, cookie dough pigouts, sleepovers, dumb waiter trips, and parties we had there.  We then hopped back in the car, and I successfully tried from memory to get us back to my old school.  We drove around the neighborhood, taking photos, and remembering the gazillion times I would ride bikes and rollerblade around to friends' houses.  Then we drove to an area called Arocena, right by the school.  For nostalgia reasons only, I had to eat a McChicken from McDonald's there, probably making that McChicken #2,376 from that particular McDonalds, haha. The area had changed quite a bit.  The houses were bigger, and shops were fancier, but the general vibe was the same, tons of kids hanging out after school goofing around.  I also found, a true gem.  A small restaurant, we simply referred to as "El Bar", in fact called Bar Arocena, was still present.  It was the only thing that looked more than 5 years old.  Patrick and I used to go to the bar at about 5 am after dancing the night away at the clubs.  It's one of the only places that´s open 24 hours a day in Montevideo, and makes maybe the best chivito ever!  To the point that, we required that be our last meal in Montevideo, before heading to the airport 12 years ago.  Anyway, obviously that was on my "must do" list for later.  We then drove back to the hostel along the Rambla, and saw the makings of a great sunset, but when we got back to the hostel, we didn´t leave with quite enough to see it well, so I vowed to try again another night.  Jared went back to the hostel, and I walked along the water for about an hour, before returning to the hostel.  I had a quick phone call to make to Australia, and by the end, we were starving; I geared up for some asado steak, but Jared opted out, as they did not accept credit card.  Unable to watch me eat the 2 big slabs of steak with churrasco sauce on the side, and paprika, garlic mashed potatoes, he went to the grocery store to find some dinner, while I took in the sights, sounds, smells of a Uruguayan parrilla.  In the end, I couldn´t finish all the mashed potatoes, so I packed them up and headed back to the hostel to relax, and head to bed.
The next morning, Friday, we woke up and had the free breakfast of pan, dulce de leche, and coffee at the hostel.  Our big task for the day was going to the embassy, but our time slot was from 3:30 pm to 5 pm, so we had some time to kill.  We walked to Ciudad Vieja, and saw the Teatro Solis, Plaza de Independecia, with a market for what was apparently, Gay Pride day; we walked through some of the booths, and looked at some artisenal shops, and down through the pedestrian street that led all the way to the port and the Mercado del Puerto, constructed in 1889, and now converted into the asado house of all asado houses, chocker-block full of different restaurants serving some of the best beef in South America.  We ran a bit over our time limit, and had to haul over to the embassy, which was, conveniently, walking distance away.  Jared got some information on customs services for the car, quickly, and I snapped ONE photo, just ONE, of the embassy, and we walked back along the Rambla to the hostel.  About half way there, a car pulled up, and 2 uniformed officers came out, explaining that I couldn´t take photos of the embassy (mind you, the old embassy website used to have basically the exact same photo on it´s mainpage), and that I would have to delete it.  The whole "oh my Dad, blah blah" routine, though surprising them, did not keep me from having to delete the photo.  That is now the second time I´ve been chased down by cops to delete a photo in my life.  Humf.  After returning to the hostel, Jared sent out a bunch of emails to the contacts he had received from the embasy, but we weren´t expecting anything until Monday.  We opted for a cheap dinner, so Jared showed me the grocery store, with a nice selection of pre-made food, including some delish empanadas.  The rest of the night, we relaxed and watched the Sony Channel; introduced while I used to live here, it is the only TV channel in English, and shows a random selection of shows from all different networks, including Friends, which I could watch all day.
Saturday was the 29th of September, a special food day in Uruguay.  Back when people would get paid at the beginning of the month, by the 29th day, they did not have enough money to eat a "proper" meal, so they would make gnocchi from scratch with the leftover meat as sauce.  I woke up that morning and took a jog, showered, and tried to head out to a big Saturday morning market, but unfortunately, the rain kicked in, and the market would close, so instead, I helped Jose, who works here at our hostel, Willy Fogg, make the gnocchi for lunch.  I had never seen gnocchi made from scratch, so it was educational for me.  It also seemed like a relatively easy dish, ingredient-wise, so it will definitely be something I try in the future.  Around 2 pm, we all sat down to eat, and had really good gnocchi with meat and chorizo sauce, and parmesan cheese.  Yum!  After that, the red wine I was served while preparing the meal, the gnocchi itself, and the rain made taking a nap nearly impossible; so, I rested and slept the next few hours.  When I woke up, the day was still crumby, so we relaxed and watched movies till late.
Sunday morning came, and the weather still wasn´t amazing, but I did not want to spend 2 days in a row hanging at the hostel, so, along with a fellow hosteler, we geared up to head to Colonia del Sacramento, a small colonial town that was used by the Portuguese to smuggle goods to Buenos Aires.  Though we normally opt out of cute colonial towns, as often you´ve seen 10, you´ve seen them all, I´m glad we went, because this was, I think, the cutest we´ve been to.  A lot of the houses are now small artesinal and art shops, and food and wine vendors, so we got to walk through some of the old houses.  I had another chivito for lunch, before heading back to Montevideo for the evening.
Monday was the day for Jared to really get into gear with car stuff.  He looked into both importing companies, to sell the car, as well as exporting companies in case he either couldn´t sell it or it was too expensive to import.  I didn´t really want to sit around again, and the day was gorgeous, so I set out to try to find tango lessons!  I had noticied a place a few blocks away from the hostel, and when I entered there was a man, Julio, in a small, dark studio.  He said he could give us classes starting that day, but first, wanted to see what my "skill" level;  I tried to convince him the my level was 0, but he wanted to put me in some heels and have me walk.  It took about 2 minutes for him to realize, I was not kidding, and we made plans for that evening.  I, then, hopped on the bus, and went over to the Stadium, built in 1930 for the first World Cup, which, coincidentally, Uruguay won!  The stadium also happens to be right by my old house, so I took another stroll to see it.  There was a museum at the stadium, but more of a Uruguayan sports museum, than soccer specific, so it was neat to see all the different details of the first World Cup.  It was not nearly as technologically advanced as the Sao Paolo museum, but still interesting.  After that, I walked around the neighborhood a bit, before hopping on the bus back to the hostel.  By that time, it was well after lunch, so Jared and I headed out to the Mercado del Puerto for some asado, first stopping at a shipping company to check on prices to ship the car back to the US, which by the way cost about $3,000, not including fees on the US side.  Our lunch was a great cut of beef for us both, and mashed potatoes again.  We checked our watches at lunch, late lunch, and realized we had to scarf down the food in order to make our tango lesson.  I was initially, a bit bummed, hoping to be able to enjoy my meal slowly, but found that I was so hungry, and the food was so good, that it was gone in 10 minutes, without me even trying to rush.  We then booked it back to the hostel, put on our dancing shoes, literally, well at least for him; I put on my dancing dress, and ran down to our lessons.  I was lucky enough to be able to use heels from the instructor, since I had none.  I we spent an hour learning some of the basic steps in tango.  It was really enjoyable, and we were pretty bad, so we set up an appointment for that next day as well.  I was pretty pooped after my day, so we went back to the hostel, ate dinner, and relaxed the rest of the night.
Tuesday morning, still unsure about the car´s situation, Jared worked more on how to get rid of it.  I lounged around waiting for him to finish to go to the museum.  In the end, he decided not to go, so I went solo to the Museo de Juan Manuel Blanes, a Uruguayan artist by the Parque Prado.  The bus took a lot longer than I expected, so I kind of had to rush through, but did also get to see the botanical garden exhibit, made in 2008 in honor of the Princess of Japan; probably, my favorite part.  I then had to take a cab back to the hostel to make it in time for our tango lesson.  We definitely improved a bit from day one, and built upon that, and again, made plans for lesson number 3, the next day.  Finished out the night again at the hostel, with some grocery story dinner.
Wednesday, we woke up, and had another lazy morning.  I had asked my parents to send my debit card down, as Jared´s was no longer working from Brazil, and I had massive charges attached to my Chase debit card.  It arrived that day; as of now, I am still having trouble activating it, but hope that will all be resolved by tomorrow.  Things started coming together for the car, and the owner and his partner at the hostel actually made an offer!  So, everything was looking up in that department!  We went to the Museo de Gaucho and Moneda, owned by the Banco Nacional, which was really small, but pretty neat, as guachos are a unique part of the culture of Uruguay and northern Argentina.  A gaucho is basically a cowboy, but with bolas and spears and, of course, mate cups made from silver and gold.  The actual edifice is neat too; a gorgeous, marble, and dark wood building that used to be a home.  After the museum, we drove back out to the neighborhood, Carrasco, where I used to go to school, to get our hands on that old school chivito I had been dreaming about.  The bar is dark, and dingy, with a few old mean sipping whiskey, and a futbol game on in the background, but holy Mary, mother of God, do they make a chivito right!  Blew my other chivitos out of the water!  So happy, we made the trek out there for one, and Jared had one too!  After that, we went to my old school, in its new location, just so I could quick pop in, and see if any of my old teachers were there.  The only surviving UAS vet was Jeff Granger, basketball coach extraordinaire!  He remembered me, and we chatted a bit, and talked to some parents at the school.  After satisfying my curiousity, we went to the mall, Portones, to find Jared an alcohol backpack, not kidding, he has bought some bottles of alcohol that are unique to different countries, Aguardiente in Colombia, Pisco in Peru etc.  Unfortunately, we again looked at our clocks are realized we were running late for class, so we sped back to the hostel to change for tango.  At the very last minute, the teacher had to cancel, so we instead just grabbed dinner, and relaxed for the night.
Thursday was homework day.  As you know, I have been super behind on this blog, so I have basically been typing all day, and running in and out trying my debit card in different ATM´s while my poor mother works on the US side at my bank trying to get them to turn the stupid thing on.  I was actually never able to acitvate my card in the end, because for some crazy reason, Capital One sent me a card that was really never intended to be activated...long and frustrating story.  I finally had to give up, right around the time of our tango lesson.  I initially did not want to have to go to the tango class, as I was so frustrated with the debit card situation, but it the end, it actually helped me relax.
Friday, we were planning on going to Punta Del Este, and spending the night there, to hand over the keys of the car to the person buying it (he has a house in Punta, and offered to let us stay), but apparently, we misunderstood, and he didn´t want to go to Punta until Saturday, so we ended up staying in Montevideo.  We woke up, and had an early class of tango.  Our instructor was the nicest person, and invited us to have lunch with him and his girlfriend at his house.  We had a traditional meal of salad, morcilla, and pork. Jared at one point asked what the morcilla was, at which time I told him that you never ask what you´re eating at an asado, because you might not like the answer.  After eating though, our instructor´s girlfriend, Carolina, told us that morcilla is blood sausage, and explained what it was make of, basically cooked blood.  We spend several hours there, and upon returning, tried to go to a notary to finalize documents for the car, but unfortunately, it was closed, so we would have to wait until Saturday.  We walked out again to try to catch the sunset, but for a second time, left too late, and missed it, grr frustrating.  As it was Friday, I wanted to experience a bit of nightlife here, but Jared did not want to go out, so I latched on to a few people that work here, and we went out dancing and drinking until 7am!  Lord, I was not expecting to stay out so late!
Upon returning to the hostel, at 7am, I crashed into bed for a few hours or sleep.  At about 1:30 pm, I woke up, showered, and we headed out to walk around a bit, and meet up with Ema, an old friend of my parents from when we lived here.  She took us around to some spots in Ciudad Vieja, and took us to coffee.  After a bit of a caffeine boost, we ran around trying to get things arranged for us to leave the next day.  We bought our bus/boat ticket over to Buenos Aires, and cleaned out the car, and packed our things up.  This would be the first time that we would have to carry absolutely everything on our backs...I was already starting to miss the idea of having the car.  That night, we ran out to say goodbye to Julio, and gave him all of the extra parts for the car, as well as the surfboard.  Jared had been trying to sell it a bit, but was unsuccessful, so we figured we would give it to him as a thank you.  We finally went to bed around midnight.
This morning is our travel day.  We woke up, and finished everything that we had to do with a bit of time to spare, until... I looked a my phone clock and realized it was freaking daylight savings here, and the clocks advanced an hour, meaning, we were actually an hour behind schedule, meaning, we missed our bus.  Fantastic.  Our first day having to actually take buses to get around, and we screwed up already.  We ran down to the bus terminal, and thankfully, they allowed us to change our ticket to later this afternoon.  Phew!  So, back to the hostel.  We have sold the car, and have everything ready, so hopefully, no more problems, and we will be in Buenos Aires tonight.
Montevideo for me has been wonderful.  I was so hoping to satisfy my curiosity, and come back for the first time in 12 years, to the place I so fondly remembered.  My life in Uruguay, at the time, was a worldwind, and left such a huge impact on the person I´ve become.  I recall nothing but good memories from here, and I am so happy that the people and city I remember are just as warm and welcoming as they were before.

Detour into Uruguay (Uruguay)

We woke up Tuesday morning at 5am, from a predictably fit full car sleep, and started the 2 day drive toward Buenos Aires.  Main event of our car ride was the ticket that we finally received.  At one point along the driver, there was a checkpoint, and as we drove by, the police officer told us we had to have our headlights on throughout the day.  A few bathroom brakes, gas fill ups, and meals later, we started driving and forgot to turn on our lights, got pulled over at a police point, and they would not budge on the headlight issue.  I tried my damndest to explain our situation, and used everything that I had used before to get out of tickets, but again, the man was not going to let us off.  So $480 Argentine pesos later, we got back in the car.  I was pretty impressed that we had made it so far without getting a ticket, but Jared was livid, spewing profanities, and imagining the worst for the police officers.  Eh, what are ya' gonna do?  Several hours into the drive, we realized that if we could not sell the car in Argentina, as we had originally hoped, then why drive all the way to Buenos Aires, to then have to potentially ferry the car over to Uruguay, or drive all the way back up the Rio Uruguay to cross into Uruguay, and drive down to Montevideo, potentially a 2 day drive again.  That was if we could even sell the car in Uruguay; I had read online that we could, but I had also read online that we could sell it in Argentina, so that source had proved unreliable.  We were lucky enough to still be driving along the Uruguayan-Argentine border, so we figured we would stop at one border crossing along the way, and at least see if it was possible to sell a car in Uruguay.  Once at the border,  we were able to temporarily forego the tax just to talk to aduana officers.  They informed us that we could definitely sell a car in Uruguay, and the paperwork didn't even have to be completed at the border, but could be done in Montevideo.  Woohoo, Uruguay, here we come!

The Uruguayan officials were so nice; they asked us all about our driving trip and wished us well.  We apparently did the whole thing backwards though, not seeing the Argentine immigration and customs office, and they gave us a much harder time about leaving, making us take almost everything out of the car to inspect it.  Then they saw Jared's huge bottles of doxycycline in the trunk and made us wait around, while they poured out the contents of pills and sniffed away.  Finally, we were allowed to leave, and we drove in, just before sunset to the small town of Paysandu.  We looked around a bit for hotels and hostels, but everything seemed a bit more expensive than expected, so we decided on another night's sleep in the car, and found a restaurant with wifi and outlets to plan our next day's drive.  Also, of note that night, I ate my first chivito.  For those of you that do not know the glory that is "the chivito", it is a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, mayo, egg, mozarrella cheese, mayo, meat, jam, and mayo.  I also endearingly refer to is as a heart attack in a sandwich.  As a side note, I once did a hefty amount of research in New York to find a Uruguayan restaurant that served the chivito, and when I finally did find one (in Brooklyn for anyone wondering), the chivito had olives, and I just chocked it up to either not remembering the chivito well, or them making it incorrectly.  This chivito did have olives, so I figured I must have just forgotten about them.  The sandwich was pretty slamming, and I was stuffed.  After dinner, we walked around the town a bit, changed money, and drove to find a suitable space to park and sleep, which ended up being a plaza on the far side of town.
The next morning, we woke up from our car sleep, and headed to Montevideo at 8 am.  The Uruguayan countryside is like a big pasture.  Probably more lots with cows than we had seen in any other place though.  The drive was easy and flat, and ticket free, and we arrived in Montevideo with a good chunk of the day still ahead of us. 

Cataratas do Iguaçu y del Iguazú (Brazil and Argentina)

The Falls could take pages in itself to fully describe the natural wonder and imagination it instills in viewers.  We saw this natural wonder from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides and what we saw was unbelievable and inspiring.  I have read that negative ions created by waterfalls emanate into surrounding people creating peaceful bliss and endless smiles.  I do not know if this is true, but within moments of arriving and setting my gaze on this beautiful, heart-stopping scene, my mouth parted and gave way to a huge smile that lasted the entire time we were there.  These 150 to 300 waterfalls are 2.7km wide and between 60 to 80 meters tall.  Imagine getting so close to these falls, the mist sweeps across your entire view-you feel the beads of water cover your face as you close your eyes, your clothes become damp, the coolness is invigorating and when you finally begin to slowly open your eyes as the mist recedes, you see the most beautiful rainbow right in front of you.  It is these moments, when your breath is taken away by beauty or love that you feel God, a double rainbow all the way across the sky moment if you will.  There are few places like this around the world and few moments in life when you are lucky enough to be given this, that it goes without saying that I humbly stood there just staring in awe for countless minutes every few steps.  I think it was Kathleen that compared the scene to the movie Jurassic Park, in that the Falls seemed to be an untouched reserve of lush forest opening up unto these imposing falls of archaic beauty right out of the movies.      

Foz do Iguacu and Cataratas de Iguazu (Brazil and Argentina)

After Sao Paolo, we drove to Foz do Iguacu, making a quick overnight pitstop in Curitaba (I remember absolutely nothing about this pitstop, so I'm glazing over it).  We have all this supped up camping gear, but have barely used it, so we decided to find a camping spot at Iguazu.  We found 2, one which was really outrageously priced for camping, and the other a pit cheaper and Visa friendly, so it was a no brainer.  This hostel was actually quite nice, with a large open restaurant, pool, foozeball and pool tables, a soccer field, and free BUFFET breakfast with basically just a massive amount of cakes!!  There may have been a few fruit options hidden in there, but really who's gonna eat fruit when you have unlimited cake!!
The day was late by the time we arrived at the hostel/camp site, so we made our tent, ate some dinner and planned our next day to visit the falls.  Unfortunately, the next day was a bit gloomy and cold, with the threat of the overnight's rain looming, so we decided to relax, and hope for a bit of sun, instead of racing out to see the falls on a crummy day.  We spent about 3 hours at the breakfast buffet, even watching shows while filling up on cakes and coffee.  Finally, a bit after 2 pm, the clouds parted just the slightest amount, and we dashed out to the car to head to the falls.  Thankfully, it was a really close drive, so we made it to the falls...just as the sky covered up again.  But no worries, it wasn't raining just a bit chilly, so we trooped on.  The Brazilian side of Iguazu, allows you to ride a bus to several different "trek" locations to walk through the forest, most end at the river and you can take a boat up to the falls, but you have to pay extra.  The walk we took, took us right along the bank of the river below the falls.  Iguazu is a collection of 150 to 300 different waterfalls (the number depends on the water level) that run off from the Parana River.  Legend has it, that a god named Boi wanted to marry the chief's beautiful daughter, but when she ran away in a canoe to meet her secret lover, the god dove into the river causing a huge flood and creating the waterfalls, for her to tumble over to her death.  We were lucky enough to see the falls after it had rained the past several nights, so the falls were massive.  From the Brazilian banks, you are really able to see the extent to which this network reaches.  It is massive!  Much larger than one would think.  As you continue to walk, new falls continue to appear from around bends in the river, and when you can finally see the whole network, it is really awe inspiring.  And the noise!  As we walked down, we couldn't see any water, but you could hear the falls, as if you were about to walk right up to one, but the level of noise from the collective sound of all the falls is shocking even from a distance.  The last part, is a cat walk leading us as close into La Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), as possible.  There is no way to insert yourself all the way into the Devil's Throat, but even as close as we were, the wind and water could blow a rickety person over, and the noise made you have to almost yell to hear one another.  Thankfully, we had Jared's waterproof camera, because as much as I tried to cover my camera lens, not even attempting to completely cover it from water, the mist seemed to be coming from below, around, inside and outside.  There was no way to keep my lense from getting covered with water.  At the end of our walk, we were freezing, and hungry, so we hopped back onto the bus to the entrance, and the car, and drove back to the hostel for some heavenly hot showers and dinner!
The next morning, we packed up our camping gear and headed out to Argentina (after cake!), to see the Argentine side of the falls.  First, we made a quick stop at Espaco das Americas, the point where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay all meet.  I finally bought a Brazil soccer jersey, as I had been trying for ages, but like a prudent idiot, found the exact one in Rio, with #10 and Neymar on the back, but thought "of course, because it's in Rio, it's going to be more expensive than elsewhere, so I'll hold off buying", and then couldn't find that jersey again anywhere!!  It's THE most popular Brazilian jersey right now, and NO ONE has it!?!?  I feel like I might be ranting, point is, I got a jersey (more expensive than the one in Rio), not that exact jersey, but better than nothing.  If I had traveled to Brazil the year before the World Cup, and not gotten a jersey, I feel like I'd look like a bit of a tard to other soccer affionados, come next year.  Anyway, I might be ranting again.  We headed to the border, which had a pretty slamming (and expensive) duty free shop, and crossed in.  Quick side note, before leaving the US, a bit of internet research revealed that we could sell the car in Argentina, so this would be the last country we drove into.  Shockingly, and upsettingly, when we questioned customs officials about importing and selling a car, they informed us that under no circumstances could we sell a US made and registered car in Argentina...uh oh.  We proceeded into Argentina, a bit dazed, but set our minds to the tourist task at hand.
We headed straight to the falls, and bought a ticket.  Apparently, we arrived a bit late (noon), and got the great help of a tour guide, who gave us our exact itinerary for the next 5 hours.  We ran to a train station to ride up to La Garganta del Diablo, and start at the top, making our way down.  The train dropped us at the top of the river Parana, where we took a series of metal grate cat walks across the river to the edge of the Falls.  Holy Moly, this was much closer to the Devil's Throat than we had been yesterday, and even though we couldn't see the end of the falls due to the white wall of mist below, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't survive the fall if I attempted it.  There is a theory, that waterfalls generate negative ions that, once breathed in, produce seratonin production and uptake, causing an improvement in mood and decreased levels of stress.  I'm not sure if that's true or not, but we were both pretty giddy at the site.  I think Jared may have said this was his favorite spot.
 After a massive amount of picture and video taking, we bee lined it back to the train area.  I bought a ticket to go on a boat into the waterfalls, but Jared didn't want to join.  We then headed down to the main trek area of the park.  We took another series of catwalks along the opposite bank that we had been the day before through the waterfalls.  The Argentine side seems a bit better developed, with signs and markers indicating the different type of flora and fauna along the cat walks.  I took my boat ride, which did not last long, but allowed me to hop of a motor boat and get right under some of the falls.  The waves came crashing over the side of the boat and everyone got completely drenched from the mist of the waterfalls.  A pretty cool experience.  I'm insanely lucky that my camera didn't break, because, apparently, I was supposed to be listening for the captain to tell us to put away our camera, which I did not, until we were well into the "getting drenched" portion of the ride, and I just tried to stuff the camera into my pocket.  After the boat ride, we walked the other set of cat walks that take you along the upper portion of the falls, and you walk right to their edges and see everything below.  As the day came to an end, and the sun was setting, we were exhausted.  Instead of taking the train, we walked back down the trail, and fell into the car.  We were both ravenous, as we hadn't eaten since breakfast in Brazil.  We drove into the town on Puerto Iguazu, and before even finding a place to sleep, drove into the center of town to find a resaurant.  After a lot of driving and price checking, we finally settled on a diner and ate a massive amount of food.  By then, the sun had been down for about an hour or so, and we had to drive around a no name neighborhood, looking for a camping site we had researched online.  Unfortunately, the map was incorrect, and there were no street names, so after alot of driving, and asking around, we decided to pull into an overpriced hostel...and sleep in the car in the parking lot.  As my clothes were all wet from the boat ride, I had a hard time warming up, but whipping out all of my warming layers and sleeping bag kept me toasty the rest of the night.
 I had read and heard a lot of different opinion of which side of the falls are better, the Argentine or Brazilian (the Paraguayan build a dam on their side years ago).  I will say, the Argentine side allows from a much more in depth, in your face look at the falls.  You get to walk right in front of some falls, feel the massive wind gusts, get soaked with the water, and practically touch the water, as you over the river right to the precipice of the falls and look down.  However, though the Argentine side is awesome, like awesome awesome, you cannot truly get an idea of the size and extent of the falls.  The Brazilian side allows you to take a step back and appreciate them for the massive, intertwining, complex that they are.  It's like anything, you can't truly appreciate something's incredible magnitude, if you can't see it as a whole unit.  So, in summation, I would say, the Argentine side, is definitely more fun and interactive, but all waterfalls are cool (at least I assume, I've never actually been to any other big waterfalls), you can't see why this is one of the Wonders of the World, if you don't see it from the Brazilian side.

Sao Paolo (Brazil)

Our last morning in Rio, we of course ate the free breakfast, even stashing a few items away for lunch.  Don't judge us, they charged us an arm and a leg on the weekend.  We headed out for an easy, quick drive to Sao Paolo.  

We got in just in time to visit the soccer museum inside of the soccer stadium.  The museum was shockingly well developed,  they had in interactive area, video interviews with players and reporters of some the the greatest goals and saves, a roaring crowd simulation room, and of course a room dedicated to the history of the game.  The museum was located under the bleachers of the stadium, so you were also allowed to walk out into the playing stadium.  All-in-all, a pretty interesting attraction.  We then headed to our hostel.  After a bit of lounging, we made our way to dinner.  Apparently, there was a large Italian immigration movement to Sao Paolo year ago, and their pizza scene is pretty happening.  We did a bit of research, and talked to the hostel attendant a bit, and decided on Casa Braz, which happened to be walking distance from where we were staying.  The restaurant looked pretty fancy; I mean, not for normal people standards, but fancier than long-distance-traveler standards.  It definitely had a warm, family-friendly environment.  We settled in, and after looking at the menu, Jared decided he would not eat, and watched as I ate delicious focaccia with pepperoni, anchovies, and salami, and a half prosciutto, olive, mozzarella (my fave!), half spicy sausage, pepper and onion pizza, FOLLOWED by a delicious 3 scoops of chocolate (2) vanilla (1) gelato, and a nice glass of red wine.  Holy moly, yum!  I was stuffed!  I have no idea how he managed to watch as I shoveled all that down.  After we walked to Subway, and he grabbed a sandwich...I'm not saying anything.  After our 2 to-do's in Sao Paolo were complete, we headed back to the hostel to prep for our next day of driving.  Sao Paolo was a bit quick, but we met someone from there on our Death Rode bike ride, who recommended we completely skip it, but I was pretty excited about the soccer museum and the pizza, and it just happened to be a good stopping point for our next drive, so it worked out well.

Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

The hostel we had found was awesome, and really close to the beach, but boy, did we pay for it.  Apparently, there was a music festival that week, Rock in Rio, which is the world`s largest rock concert (?); I dunno, that`s just what someone mentioned.  So, hostel prices were pretty outrageous across the board.  By that time, Jared was feeling a bit better, at least able to eat a bit, so we headed out to a close place, and grabbed some good old-fashioned, unfried, steak, hallelujah!  I met some fellow hostelers, and picked their brains on Rio activities, which mostly consisted of Rock in Rio for a lot.  After a few introductions, I called in a night, and was elated with the knowledge that I would not have to drive for a least a few days!
The next morning, we woke up, and got a good, all-you-can-eat breakfast spread at the hostel.  After not too long, I put my new Cartagena bathing suits bottoms on, and headed to the beach!  Ug, I apologize for all the exclamation points, I just really liked Rio...and want to make sure you understand that.  Anyway, down to the beach I went.  Jared stayed back for a bit as his stomach was acting up, but joined not long after I arrived.  The beach was packed;  I also saw the largest woman`s butt cheeks, just hanging out, for the whole world to see...she was really large.  So that was basically my introduction to the world of swim wear in Rio.  The men were in surprisingly large swim suits...I mean, not like in the USA, but also definitely not those little Speedos people used to sport.  I think the most memorable swimsuit, besides the one I couldn`t see on the first woman I told you about, was the teenie weenie nude, string bikini, thong, on the super old, super tan woman walking along.  It reminded me of the old, leather-skinned woman from the movie Something About Mary.  The water was surprisingly chilly, and the undercurrent was very strong, so I mostly just basked in the sun, trying to get back that Central America glow I had earlier, which did not really happen, but that`s beside the point.  We spent an hour or two lounging, before heading back to the hostel.  We showered up, and walked around our area a bit, getting a better feel for what Barry Manilow was talking about.  That evening we attempted to walk down the beach to a park and small hilltop before sunset, but we left a bit late, and right as we started, Jared`s stomach started hurting again, so we decided to hold off until the next day, as we probably wouldn´t even be able to reach the park before sunfall.  The rest of the night, we were mostly just lazy, hanging out at the hostel.  We promised that the next day, we would be productive tourists....
Each day started way earlier than I wanted.  I hoped for a nice 10 am leisurely wake up, but instead, would unwantedly wake up at 7 am.  Despite trying to shut me eyes as tightly as possible, once you`re up in a dorm room of a hostel, it`s nearly impossible to fall back asleep.  So up we got, everyday, between 7-8 am.  The all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, with more than just bread and jam, definitely helped to ease the blow.  I had some quick errands to run for Australia, so I set out to the post office, while Jared set up our tourist activities.  Upon my return, we packed our sunblock and glasses and headed out to the bus station to go to Cristo Redentor, or Christ the Redeemer;  one of the Man-Made Wonders of the World!  An easy ride later, we hopped off right in front of the park; couldn`t have been easier.  A small train takes passengers up to the summit every 30 minutes, and then you can walk/take an elevator up the the statue.  Views of the city are pretty amazing, and as with many monuments, the statue is a lot bigger than it looks!  After a bit of photos and plaque reading, we got back on the train to head back down.  We went back to the hostel, and this time took the bus over to the park to try to catch the sunset again.  Alas, we were too late, and the sun started to set before we could reach the park...again.  Also, we were insanely hungry, as we hadn`t eaten since breakfast!  So instead, we headed for a restaurant in the Ipanema area.  We split some pretty awesome beef stroganoff, and after gorging ourselves walked for a bit, before rain started picking up and we bused back to the hostel for the night.
The next morning, we had to be ready a bit early as I really wanted to go on a free walking tour of the city.  We attempted one in La Paz, but no one ever showed up, but I was pumped for the Rio tour.  I really like to know certain back stories and history behind areas, instead of just taking pictures of pretty buildings.  We got on the train, which we were told would take about 10 minutes to reach our destination, and 30 minute later ran off, in the hopes that we had not missed the tour, which was supposed to have left 4 minutes after we got off the train.  We ran around looking for someone that looked like they might be a tour guide, and low-and-behold, just as we were about to give up, Jared spotted the group.  The was a serious, no-fooling-around tour group,  probably about 40-50 people.  The tour was led by a young history student, who had actually started this company herself.  She split the tour into 2 groups, as there were too many to pill in front of certain buildings and other stops on the tour.  She took us to the historic district, taught us a bit about the finding and establishment of Brazil; the palace, legislative buildings, theater house, old, famous restaurants, etc.  I was so happy that we found the tour in the end, and the guide was great.  She also took us to a Havaiana store, where we got a 10% discount, and a restaurant where we got a dicount, and a free large caipirinha!  Again, great tour experience.  We finished up at the Escanderia Seleron, and independently we up to Santa Teresa, and a park with a great view of the city; we also walked to the Cathedral, which is pretty oddly, or uniquely, I guess, shaped.  By the time, we made it back to the hostel, we were pooped.  What was supposed to be about a 2 hour tour turned into us being out and about from 10:30 am to about 5:30 at night.  On our way back to the hostel, we were discussing how much we enjoyed the city, and made the last night decision to stay an extra day in Rio, instead of driving a bit north to check out a colonial town. Beach in Rio vs. UNESCO World Heritage Site...no-brainer! haha. I was pretty pumped because A) I had been given another oppotunity to go out! and B) there was a soccer game the next day at the Brazilian stadium, where I imagine a huge chunk of World Cup games will take place next year, Estadio Macarana, and C) the beach. So, after our tour, I hung out with some fellow hostelers, showered up, and beautified (as best as possible without my arsenal of beauty products), and prepared to party like a Rio-star! Jared was not as siked as me, but willing to go, until...about 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave. But no mind, he could be a party pooper if he wanted, I was not about to let him keep me from going a second night in a row, and low-and-behold, I stand my ground, and he caved! haha We headed out on foot, with about 10 other hostelers, and arrived at another hostel with, apparently, a pretty rocking bar downstairs. Jared left not long after we arrived, but I stayed out with the others, til the wee hours of the night, and had a great time!

The next morning, I was up surprisingly early, and shockingly hangover-free. As we were allowed one more day in Rio, we were going to take advantage of the beach. We suited up, and headed down. That day was a bit overcast, so there were not nearly as many people as before, but I was not about to allow a bit of clouds and the threat of rain to keep me from catching a few rays! After maybe an hour or so, we set out to a ticket vendor to buy our soccer tickets for that night, and another Brazilian good samaritan helped us out by guiding us in our section choice (a huge decision in the end), and almost buying the tickets (we would pay, he would be the registrant) for us when we thought neither of us had brought our ID`s, which apparently you need to buy a ticket; Jared had his in the end, but it`s still a great example of Brazilian kindheartedness. After my to-do was done, we headed out for Jared`s; he wanted to go to a Jiu Jutsu gym he had read about, so after a short bus ride, and a bit of confusion trying to locate it, we walked into a super stinky gym with men rolling around on mats, in crazy wrestling positions...not a bad place for a girl to hang out! We watched their practice for a bit, and then made our way back to the hostel. We relaxed for a bit, before making the easy subway trip over to the stadium. This place has obviously been vamped up for the World Cup. It was the most beautiful stadium I think I ever seen! The outside had changing color shows, and a running track, the entrances are easy to navigate, and every few feet there is an attendant waiting to help. They must use every game as a World Cup practice run. The field was beautiful, and our section was packed; at first, it was pretty empty, and we thought maybe Rock in Rio had stolen all of the soccer patron, but we were just more zealous, and nervous, and showed up earlier than the stadium savy veterans. As the game began, we were so happy to be sitting on our side, as our section was packed with rowdy fans, and the other section was almost completely barren of afficionados. I kind of felt bad for them, and normally would have started rooting for them as the under dog team, but I also feared being discovered in a dark ally the next day by the police if I made the slightest facial expression implying anything but complete blood-thirsty contempt and disdain for the other club team. In the end, they actually ended up winning by 2-0 goals, so I was happy, but to see the awesome fan reactions throughout was great! That night, we went back to the hostel, and I felt much better about our timing and leaving the city the next day.

Heading Due East (Bolivia to Brazil)

We woke up lazily our last day in La Paz, because A) we wanted the free breakfast, B) we knew we had a ton of driving over the next few days, and C) we had to wait for our laundry. Since the protests were that day, we ended up not being able to pick up our laundry until after 10 am. We packed the car, and said one final goodbye to La Paz, the only city we had left and returned to so many times. However, La Paz never ceases to be a thorn in one´s side, and despite the fact that there was little car traffic to deal with that morning (from the protests), there were protesters throwing rocks and debris into the road. We were able to make it out with no car damage, and starting our long drive. The first day was easy, nothing of note, except the jamming Backstreet Boys marathon we had during the drive. We also discovered outright a fact that we had suspected throughout our stay in Bolivia: despite the amount of tourism there, the governemnt was not that friendly toward foreign presence (which we actually discovered later, through an article on CNN.com, that Bolivia is the #1 most unfriendly country for travelers [google it]).. A bit after leaving La Paz, we routinely stopped for gas, noting that since arriving in the country, we had not needed to fill up yet. The first gas station we arrived at informed us that they could not fill our tank due to our foreign license plate...along with the second and third gas stations. Things were becoming worrisome, but someone mentioned that we might be able to buy gas from a mechanic shop. We found a small, run-down shop, and were able to fill up using our spare gas container from the trunk. We filled up by hand, one liter at a time, taking ages, but we were secure for the time being, and continued on our way. A few hours before we arrived in our first resting town, Jared mentioned that he had started to feel under the weather, sore throat, nausea, aching body etc. By the time we arrived in Cochabamba, he was a mess. I ran around looking for a place for us to stay, while he rested, and when we settled ourselves into a hostel, he basically remained in the fetal position for the rest of the evening.
 The next morning, he was not during any better, so I took over driving. We drove from about 7 am I think, until the sun went down, and stopped in a super small town, maybe namme San Juan...memory escapes me at this point.  The only thing of notes in the town, was the presence of serious white people.  Apparently, there was some sort of amish community that had settles in Bolivia ages ago...who knew?  So, yea, it was a bit weird to see tons of little baby towheads running around.  Although, they stared at us more than the locals!  I had dinner sola, as Jared was barely feeling well enough to hold up his head, and went right back to the hostel for a early night`s sleep.
 The next morning, again early wake up and drive.  We arrived at the border of Brazil around lunch, ate cheaply, as we assumed prices would skyrocket the second we stepped over the border, and got in line for the usual back-and-forth at customs. Shockingly, the most arduous part of the process was the Bolivian customs office; normally countries make leaving easy, and it´s entering that takes up all the time. On the contrary, it seemed Bolivia was going to have us sit around for 2 hours for their customs officers to eat. The Brazilian side, however, was easy; a short line for immigration, and when we went over to customs, they told us we didn´t need any paperwork to bring in the car!! At least I think they said that...despite attempting to learn Portuguese from a Lonley Planet travel book, my language skills were not up to the task at that point. Somewhat, confounded, we hopped in the car without confirming with the Brazilian government that we had a car through any type of paperwork (the first time since leaving the US), and set out for more driving. I was sure we would get stopped at the first check point, and sent back to the border...or jail, but we did not, so we kept going.  Our first pit stop for the night in Brazil, was Campo Grande.  I was pretty siked to start using some of the Brazilian Portuguese I had been practicing, and had spent the whole day in the car reading signs and hoping I was pronouncing everything correctly, which I wasn`t, but I tried my damndest!  Campo Grande was a nice and big city, but did lack cheaper hostels, so we had to stay at a hotel.  One of the first things we did was run to the ATM, and wouldn't you know it, Jared's card got rejected, not once, not twice, but several times, at different locations.  Luckily, from the 3 debit cards I left the US with, I was down to one Chase, so we wouldn't be compltetely screwed, but I did get a pretty hefty international ATM withdrawal fee, so cash was only to be used if absolutely necessary.  Thankfully, our hotel took card...thankfully we were in Brazil, because pretty much everything took card.  I don't remember anything in Bolivia taking card, including paying for our flight to the Madidi National Forest.  Anyway, we grabbed dinner at McDonald's, because Jared wanted to see if it did in fact taste different down there, like I had claimed.  Now, A) I said it tasted different in Uruguay, I had no idea what Brazilian McDonald's tasted like, and B) I haven't a Mikkie D's burger in years.  At this point, I have no idea what a US McDonald's burger tastes like, BUT the burger we had at the Brazilian McDonald's was awesome!  And crazy overpriced.  Well, maybe not overpriced, as it was most likely real meat, and really only overpriced because I'm so used to US McDonald's prices, this was about $10.  Anyway, point is...yes, Brazilian McDonald's has GOT to be better than US McDonalds!  After our experiment ended with us successfully full, we walked back to the hostel for the night.
The next day, we planned on driving from sun-up until soun-down (again), to reach Sao Paolo, but ended a few hours pre-mature when Jared announced the he desperately needed a bed, and couldn`t be in the car anymore.  Luckily, we were at a gas station right outside of a really nice town called Bauru.  I attempted to chat a bit with the gas station attendants, who were so nice, and helped me with all my Portuguese questions!  They then tried to give me directions into town, for us to stay at a hotel, and when a new car came up, this amazing pregnant woman, said we could just follow her into town, and she would show us.  As of this point, we had already had very brief, but lovely encounters with Brazilians, but this one took the cake.  She started driving us into town, and then stopped a few miles in, came running back to our car, belly swinging around in her hands, to ask what kind of price range we wanted!!  Then, when we told her what we were looking for (cheap), she said, "oh geez, well that`s behind us", and I tried to listen as closely as possibly as she gave Portuguese directions, and then said "but don`t worry, you can just follow me".  So this amazing woman, literally turned her car around and drove us to a new place in the other direction!!  Seriously...nicest people ever!  Unfortunately, even the cheap hotel was a bit out of our price range, but the hotel attendant directed us to a different location, that, even though it was still a bit more than we wanted to pay, would suffice, as Jared was having a rough time.  As he turned our room into his quarantine cell, I stayed away as much as possible, grabbed dinner, walked around, and attempted to communicate with a pharmacist what Jared`s symptoms were, she gave me some pills, who knows what they were for, and I doled them out to Jared in hopes that they would help in some way.  When I did plant myself in our room for the night, the hallway came alive.  We heard men yelling and banging, it sounded like some highschool trip fight was breaking out.  Luckily, they calmed down (or more accurately, left), and we were able to get some sleep.
 The next morning, we went to breakfast at the hotel dinning area, and discovered the rowdy "highschool" kids, were in fact, middle aged men, which really just made me fall in love with the Brazilian people even more!  We got into the car, and were determined to make it to Rio de Janeiro that day...or ELSE!!!  Well, "or else" nothing really, we would just have to sleep in some highway town again, but I was dying to be done driving; 5 days of 12 hours driving stints, I was done!  The only real thing of note during that drive was getting stopped by 2 police officers, who I knew were gonna give me a ticket, beacuse I had passed them earlier on the highway, not knowing they were cops.  Instead, they were rally just curious about our drive and our trip; even invited us in for coffee or water!  Seriously liking Brazil at this point; I think also because Bolivia had been such a drag on us.  Anyway, finally getting closer to Rio, we ran into a bit of traffic as the sun went down, but I was not stopping!  We had perfectly functioning headlights, and I was making it to the land of samba, beaches, thongs, and caipirinhas or somebody was gonna get it!!!  ...and let`s be honest, it would probably be Jared, just for proximity reasons.  Well after dark, we pulled into lovely Rio, and with great modern roads and lights (!!), we easily managaed our way to Copacabana, and our hostel.
Copa, Copacabana.  The hottest place south of Havana!  Not joking, I had that song stuck in my head the entire time we were in Rio.

PLANNING MACHU PICCHU

PLANNING MACHU PICCHU was difficult with the small amount of time we had available in Cusco thus access to viable information leading up to the trip to Machu Picchu to make a decision.  When you arrive in Cusco, you will see tour offices on every street by the handful and it is daunting when searching for the right trip.  We only had an afternoon to plan this trip so we got stuck going with the first tour office we went into, so after, I made a list of all the prices and talked to some other travelers to compare.  In total, we spent 250 USD for a one day, two night trip to Machu Picchu covering transportation and rooms.  Other travelers with different tour offices seemed to pay similar prices, but here is the break down for your knowledge...

   Train tickets from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes were 55 USD and 70 USD through Inca Rail.  Peru Rail exists as a competitor but only offer similar pricing.
    Bus tickets from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu cost 18.50 USD for a round trip, so if you want to cut corners with cost, you could easily walk it.
    Machu Picchu and Mountana entrance ticket itself cost 50.50 for the day.

This totals out at 194 USD, so the rest was spent on our room in Aguas Calientes, transportation to Ollantaytambo and back and the rest, their profits.  Profits seem to be negligible so getting a tour office to make these plans for you seems reasonable, but again if you want to make things slightly cheaper, you can definitely make these plans on your own to attempt to do so.  Other than the option I have made available here, there are other options to get to Machu Picchu i.e. multipe day hiking treks.  I only spoke to one person regarding such and he quoted me 250 USD as well, but these prices vary greatly and can get expensive to do the Inca Trail and other hikes.

Amazon Jungle Trekking (Bolivia)

At 4 am, we wretched ourselves out of bed to head to the airport. If we had more time, we would´ve taken the cheaper bus option, but the drive was avout 30 hours each way, and we couldn´t afford that on our time constraints. We hopped in a cab, in the pitch black, and about 5 minutes into the drive, remembered we had forgotten our tickets! Luckily, we had left with enough time to swing back around, and pick up the tickets without a worry. When we got to the airport, security was a breeze even though it was crowded; no belts removed or shoes taken off! We sat in silence, trying to wake up, until our flight was called, and we boarded onto a teenie plane. The flight was short, less than an hour, and, all bundled up from La Paz, we stepped into the jungle climate of Rurrenabaque. We found a guide waiting for us, and hopped in a van for the center of town, and our travel agency there. After stripping off a few layers, we made for a quick breakfast, and met our guide for the next few days, Ivan. Someone mentioned leaving our big packs at the agency office during our trek, so we quickly packed small bags with the essentials for living in the jungle the next few days...which for Jared, did not include any clothing, a decision he later regretted. We walked over to a river, and hopped on a boat to cross, and receive our park entrance tickets. After signing the dotted line, we got back in the boat with about 7 other travelers, and headed up the Rio Beni, into the deeper Madidi National Park. After about 45 minutes, driving up the river, we stopped at a small bank, and all got out to visit a small indigenous village. I´m not sure if you´d even really call it a village. It was one large family, and its extensions, but they did have about 40-50 hectars (I actually have no idea how much that is) of land that they cultivated; mainly cane, but also some fruits, and a few other items to sustain themselves. We learned about the way of live their people had created ages before the government came in, proclaiming their land a National Reserve, and mandating rations for the villages. We walked around the plot a bit, and made sugar water from grinding cane stalks through a large series of wheels. We then got to try the finished product, which, as you would suspect, was really too sweet to drink alone, but add a little lime juice, and it was delicious!! The families main income was trading the cane drink, and honey made from cane, in the main town, Rurrenabaque. After thanking our host, we got back in the boat, and headed farther up the river. After maybe another 45 minutes, we pulled into a area clearly designated as this tour groups main camp/cabin location. Once we made our way up a series of staircases, we came into the main area of the complex, which was so nice! They had a large eating pavilion, and the cabins we so cute. I was actually surprised by our accomodations, as I expected us to be roughing it at night. On the contrary, our rooms we nice and the staff was attentive. After a bit of a rest and snack...might I add, the amount of food we had a lunch was awesome, we met back up with the group and Ivan, and set out for an afternoon hike. Another boat ride up the river, and we got out and walked through the brush. The jungle is pretty much what you would expect...lots of trees ;) We walked for about 2 hours, and came across a pack of wild boar (which stink!) and monkeys. Our guide showed us alot of the different type of flora, including, my favorite, a garlic tree! When he cut into the branch, it smelled just like garlic! He said people used it to ward off the animals...not sure if it would entice or deter them from eating someone. He also told us how the current President wants to build a highway through the jungle, and displace, obviously the wild life, as well as the people that have made that area their home. Bad President! On the walk back, I´m not drawing any conclusions...but I could´ve SWORN that I heard a "purr"; not really a growl I wouldn´t say, but definitely not a house kitten purr either. After that, we watched our backs a bit more. When the hike was done, we headed back to our cabin area via the boat. That night, we washed up, ate dinner, and headed to bed. The next morning was to be our big jungle adventure day. We had a good breakfast, packed our things up, and started our 5-6 hour hike. The hike was much like the day before; Ivan explained certain local customs, and we saw a few monkeys and boar from afar. A bit after midday, we arrived at our new camping ground, which was much more of what I had originally imagined for our accomodations...very bare. The guides set up a row of sleeping nets and pads, we all ate lunch, and went down to the Rio Beni for a quick dip to cool off after our hike. The swim was wonderfully refreshing, but the current was so strong that we could really just lie close to the bank until the sand flies started eating us alive. After our rest, we put our hiking gear back on, and went out again to a lookout point. We were hoping to see a gorgeous sunset, but unfortunately, we were not facing the right way. We did however, see a massive amount of beautiful wild parrots. At dusk, the parrots fly in from all over the park to this area; they were really quite stunning...and made a pretty obnoxious sound. I was thinking of how well the voice of Iogo from the movie Aladdin was cast...not completely randomly, we had watched Aladdin recently. As the sun went down, we headed back to our camp sight. Unfortunately, the light went out entirely as we were descending the steep and muddy hill; I twisted my hip a bit (a repercussion from my fall on the Death Road bike trip), so that was not my favorite part. Back at camp, dinner was ready, and we were starving! We scarfed down the food, trying, unsuccessfully to swat away the INSANE amount of mosquitoes (jungle mosquitoes are NOT like normal mosquitoes; they will bite you right through your 99% Deet and clothing), and then everyone got ready for one last hike of the day. My hip was not doing so well, so I opted out. The purpose of the hike was see some tarantulas, as they apparently come out mostly at night; unfortunately, they were unsuccesful, and came back about 40 minutes later. That night, we all piled into our row of sleeping bags and nets, and got a pretty crappy night of sleep, unsurprisingly. The next morning, headed out at 6:30 am, to try to watch the parrots as the set out for the day. We caught a glimspe of several, but the night before gave us a much better vantage point. After a good breakfast, which we shoveled down as quickly as they could get new plates on the table, we headed back to the Rio Beni to finish up the last of our jungle adventure...and boy was this the adventure (reminiscent of our sailing adevnture). Our guides built a raft for us from scratch, a bit or rope and some tree trunks, and we all piled on for a ~2 hour ride down river back to Rurrenabaque. Everything started out nicely, the day was warm and sunny, and the water was nice and cool through the trunks. When we turned a bend in the river, we saw the sky ominously turn dark. The wind picked up so aggressively, that through the sand and dust blowing in our eyes, we could tell that we were, in fact, being blown up river, making the guides work hard to get us down river with the current. Then the rain picked up, pelting us, and forcing us passengers back into the river due to the frigid tempteratures, but "don´t touch the bottom...piranhas and sting rays"...great. The guides, despite being freezing and working tirelessly to keep our little raft afloat, kept singing praises to the rain, saying the land was desperate for it. Finally, a boat came for us, and we all climbed in, clutching our bodies to keep warm. We made a pit stop at the camp area from the first night for lunch, and headed back down the river...in a boat with a motor. We landed back in town and found ourselves a nice hostel to park for the night. We were pretty gross, dirty, sandy, sweaty, and nappy. We hopped right in the shower, and I slept from 3 pm to 8 am the next morning!! Not kidding! Jared walked around town a bit, before getting a long sleep himself. The next morning, we woke up, had breakfast, and lounged for a bit, before headed back to the airport and La Paz. The first thing we did back in La Paz, was head straight to the laundromat! Thankfully, the receptionist at our hostel mentioned to me that the next day was a bit of a holiday, as there waas a huge protest happening citywide, and many things, including embassies, might not be open. I quickly called the Brazilian embassy to check, and they said they would also be closed, but if we ran over then, we could pick up our visas, which we discovered later had actually been ready for a full week at that point; but no mind, we ran to a cab, and booked it over to the embassy to pick up our shiny visas! That night, we slept early again, and prepped ourselves for the long sets of driving to come for RIO!!

31 August 13
DAY 115

Just finished our 2 week adventure through Peru, beginning on the Northern border with Ecuador and following the coast past Lima cutting in around Nazca following the Eastern road to Cusco and Lake Titicaca finally the Bolivian border.  During this time, we successfully crossed the Andes in the Cavalier, which most laughed at and I now proudly boast of, as well as nearly hitting 10,000 miles traveled on the car.

Northern coastal Peru is a desert of clay, rocks and dirt, traveling south with deserted beaches on your right and mountains of rock of different shades of brown on your left.  It reminded me of Afghanistan minus the pristine ocean nearly untouched my tourism.  As of now, there is only Mancora and Lobitos that are tourist destinations, with much of the rest only inhabited by fishing communitites.  The difference in landscape between Southern Ecuador and Northern Peru is in complete contrast.  Long fields of banana trees fill Southern Ecuador along the Pan-Americn and before that spralling shades of green tumbling over mountains.  Once across the border, this quickly changed to the dirt and rock i have already described.

We visited the surfing communities of Mancora, Lobitos and further south to the area of Trujillo with a beach just north of the city that was suppossed to claim the crown for the longest left break in the world.  Lobitos sported the most difficult entry point, leading us for a few hours well into night across cliffs and down roads of sand leaving the car almost immovable in several places and the girls scared at the sight of every car and every face, expecting the worse.  I began to plan for the worse being in such a deserted location with our armed robbery fresh in my head.  All was well and unfortunately for me, the surfing conditions were horrible, the waves mostly being flat and the weather cold and foggy.  We had little time to wait, so sadly my dream to surf in Peru will need to wait until one of the next adventures.

Lima is a massive city that took us well over an hour to navigate to our hostal.  Lima lies next to the ocean with a gigantic cliff between much of the city and the sandy beaches offering amazing views of the landscapes unique to the city.  Another gem the city offers, is the final resting place of Fransisco Pizarro the conquering conquistador of the Incas and the founder of the city.  Interesting enough, inside the Lima Cathedral, the body that was exhumed and on display as Pizarro since 1892 was discovered to not be the man when his actual body was found within the church's foundations in 1977.

After Lima, we cut into the mainland stopping next at Nazca to see the ancient Nasca Lines (400-650 AD) etched into the desert floor.  From our elevated observation point along the highway, we were able to see the Hands and the Tree.  Even missing most of the other ancient drawings, I was able to see the ability and imagination of these Nasca people through their astrological work.  Some experts claim these lines were created to help determine the seasons while others espouse a more radical theory involving ancient aliens, but their is little concrete evidence so conjectures abound.

About 30 minutes outside Nazca along the road to Cuzco, is the largest sand dune in the world at a height larger than 2000 meters.  We decided this was going to be our first sandboarding experience and it took over 3 hours to walk across rock and sand to this monstrous peak before boarding down the bottom below.  We took a few practice tries to get our bearings before going down the last 800 meter drop to test our new skills.

Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas and the stopping point for all visiting Machu Picchu, is layed with cobblestone streets and colorful plazas in its Centro Historico.  While we were there, the weather was dry and cool durig the day but became freezing at night, warranting all the layers in my inventory.  It was here that I tried Cuy or Guinea Pig for the first time and must say that it tasted a lot like chicken.  It was also here that we began to see coca products more abundantly (brownies, tea, candy, chocolate, etc).

Very quickly we ventured to Machu Picchu via Aguas Caliente, the premier tourist location for myself, as well as, most tourists in Latin America.  The ruins and the landscape did not dissapoint.  The beauty of this ancient city surrounded by mountains of dark green on all sides with even the city perched upon a natural plateau that quickly descended to river valleys below is uncanny.  This trip to Machu Picchu was the longest we spent admiring any ruins in Latin America by an enormous amount, 7 hours compared to a distant second at Tikal, Guatemala with 3 and a half hours.

The last town we visited on our route to Bolivia landed us on Lake Titicaca in a town called Puno, where we tied up our Bolivian visas and visited the Islas de Uros on the lake, a group of artificial floating islands made of reeds harvested by the Uru people from nearby.  It was an interesting feeling when first jumping off the boat onto the soft reflexive reed island.  A nice crunch sound accompanied every step.  We found outfrom the local people that they in fact add another layer of reeds weekly to stay above the water because the bottom continually dissolves from the water.  Also, each island has large wooden posts drilled into the lake bed attached to their island; as well as, ropes attaching island to island so the "floating" islands in fact stay stationary.