And it´s been a while...

since we last updated-- we´ve been to Carnval in Guayleguachu, back to Buenos Aires, and way down south to Bariloche and El Bolson.

Carnaval in Guayleguachu was a blast. Guayleguachu, reputed to be the center of Argentina´s Carnaval festivities, is a small town on a beautiful river deep in the Pampas. They have a mini-Carnaval celebration every weekend of the summer, which we didn´t quite put together until we were going up there, but we enjoyed ourselves in spite of (perhaps because of) the hordes of Argentinean weekenders that gathered there. We camped out with Claire and Mike, two of Stew´s buddies that happen to be in Argentina, which was a bit crowded in our tent, but we cuddled and made it work AKA Mike slept like a puppy at our feet. The Carnaval parade was like an acid dream. Picture lots of feathers and even more nipple tassles, not to mention body paint -- all aboard african-inspired floats (elephants, bones, temples, ect.). It was out of this world. The scene at our campsite was equally outrageous. Who doesn´t love 24 hour cumbia music at 100 decibels?

From Guayleguachu we went back to Buenos Aires, where we hit up all the tourist attractions we had yet to see (that weren´t closed for restoration in preparation for BA´s 400th anniversary) -- many beautiful albeit mosquito infested parks (we have coined a new term: dengue den....Go to Buenos Aires for the fiesta, but stay for the dengue) ; the tango district of La Boca, where we saw couples tango as we ate a great dinner; and the port of Puerto Madero, which houses a 1903 vessel which once saved Norwegian explorers in Antarctica. The coolest exhibit we saw was in the Musuem of Latin American Modern Art, and charted Andy Warhol¨s career, including all the dark scary little details....as we said, most everything we really were pumped about was closed, but it still was great to explore the touristy aspects of Buenos Aires. We also got to see our friends Zach and Megan, whom we met in Panama, which was great! It´s pretty cool to meet up with someone that you met earlier in the journey.

Thanks so much to Claire for letting us crash at her apartment in Buenos Aires, she is a fanstastic hostess! We had a ton of fun cooking dinner and hanging out with her in Belgrano, one of BA´s hippest neighborhoods. That´s right, we can hip.

From Buenos Aires we headed down South with Mike, whom Stew met while studying abroad in Peru. Our first stop was Bariloche, about a 23 hour bus ride from BA. We sprang for the cama (bed) bus, which meant wine was included! We all slept well :) We arrived in Bariloche just in time to book a room for the night and visit a fantastic chocolate shop. We also saw a totally insane Scandinavian chick swim in the bitter cold -- ie: hailing, snowing, raining, unbearable cold--and then sunbathe. This only confirms our prior beliefs that all Scandinavians are at least a little bit off their rockers.

Bariloche is in the Lake District of Argentina, which is disputably a region of Patagonia. At any rate, it is situated picturesquely on Lake Nahuel Natuapi, in the middle of a national park -- a perfect place for hiking. Our plan for day 2 in Bariloche was to take a bus out to camp ground, then do a day hike up to waterfall. We somehow managed to screw this up: we hiked up a mounain each with 50 pound packs to a refugio on stony plateau at the side of a lake. Even though going straight up hill for 6 hours with WAY TOO MUCH weight on your back is a killer, the view made it totally worth it. Plus, camping at the refugio was free, so we saved money! Yay! Also, we didn´t bring enough food, so we lost some weight. At this point, that day may sound miserable to you all, but it was nonetheless magnificent to us.

Upon returning, we intended to get to El Bolson as quickly as possible. The first stop, however, was lunch. Thus, we ended up missing the bus out of town, but we didn´t care at this point. We re booked our ridiculous (continue reading!) hotel in Bariloche and went looking for bus tickets, wine, and a (closed) chocolate factory. Success on two fronts is still a good day. Later, we went down to the lake to take pictures of the sunset, swing on the playground, drink beer out of plastic bags, and eat delicious venison, trout, and bife de chorizo, which is a cut of steak prepared in a way that makes it very tender.

When we got back with our boxes of wine (sorry, parents...) we sat down and conversed with the owner of the hotel. Tori retired quickly, which turned out to be a good move. The owner quickly drilled Stew and Mike about Minnesota, Scandinavia, The South, and Australia. Only later did we realize these were The Whitest Places in the World, and the guy was in fact a Nazi. As the evening grew later, his Nazi tendencies and our extremely anti racist tendencies became clearer, the night got more awkward, but more wine was consumed, thus creating a general equilibrium. Still, it was hard for us to hold our tongues which was necessary to maintain our increasingly desirable beds. Anyway, go to Bariloche for the views, chocolate and wine. Don´t talk to any locals unless you´re really into the Aryan Nation. (This may be harsh but it reflects our experience)

The next day we bought a bunch of yogurt and bread and ate in the street beside a supermarket. Aren´t we classy? Then we got on a bus to El Bolson. It is known as a hippie town with beautiful hiking in the very near vicinity. Both are true and fantastic. Hippie towns can be obnoxious at times, but this one embodies all of the positive stereotypes of hippies and moreover is located in a valley between two ranges of gorgeous mountains. From town, you can do many hikes, which we took advantage of. We´re camped at a great place called Ni Nada (Nor Nothing) which is an organic farm with camping and a cabin-dorm which we are staying in. It is so cheap, we can afford the dorm and do not have to camp every day.

Our first day we took a hike to El Bosque Tallado or The Carved Forest. While generally underwhelming, the area around it is overwhelming and there are a few sculptures made out of dead trees which are fascinating. On the other hand, how surreal can you get with a dead tree before it just looks like a lumber yard in a hurricane?

The next day, we set out for a three day trek up to Hielo Azul and Lago Natacion (BLue Ice and Swimming Lake). The trek up was hard: 5 hours straight up if you´re Tori and 6 hours if you´re Stew and Mike and get lost and spend a long time running up and down looking for Tori only to realize You´re the one that is lost. Props to Tori for being right and a big WTF to Stew and Mike. Legend has is that they got intentionally lost in order to eat their turkey sammiches early. The lake was gorgeous and there were glacier capped mountains above our refugio (a sort of hostel at the top of the mountain usually spaced about a day apart and complete with campsite, kitchen, expensive food, and beer). If you camp and bring your own food, its the same as a US shelter but nicer.

The next day, we took a hike over to the glacier at Hielo Azul (the refugio there has a very nice bathroom). THe trail is basically straight up a mountain and full of scree for 3 hours, but the view is absolutely worth it. Unfortunately, the glacier is now melted and much more of a green lake than blue ice. Nonetheless, the ice is magnificent and there are icebergs floating in the lake. Hurry: supplies are limited.

Today, we came down just in time to catch a bus back to town where we came across a fair. After days of rice, we treated ourselves to fair food: empanadas, matambres (hunger killers which are steak sandwiches), milanesas (country fried steak sandwiches), and pizza. Afterwards, wine and apples. Tomorrow, we leave for Calafate on a 26 hour bus. There we will see the only glacier in the world that is expanding.

Yeehaw and off to bed.

Love,
Tori and Stew

Arrrrgentina

So Malargue was kind of a bummer. We couldn´t find a reasonably priced room and ended up spending 40 bucks on a room with a leaky toilet. The next morning, we got all our stuff together to go hiking only to discover that it was going to be an $80 journey to the park, plus $20 a person to camp. This was unreasonable and we left Malargue with a final finger in the air and headed up to San Rafael. We had read about a canyon there and thought this might be a better place to hike.

San Rafael is, by the way, lame. Don´t go there, dudes, except to pass through it on your way to Cañon Atuel/Nihuel. The canyons are beautiful polychromatic (though mostly reds) striated rock formations that have been flooded due to a recent dam. Below the dam is a rushing river famous for its rafting, though the rapids looked pretty tame to us. A girl on the bus recommended a campsite to us that had a swimming pool, though it turned out that you had to pay $10 to enter and an additional $5 a person per day. This is, by the way, more expensive than camping at the Grand Canyon which is definitely cooler. Whoever said Argentina was cheap was a lying foo´. CAmping here was more expensive than camping in the Atacama desert in Chile (an allegedly and confirmedly expensive country) and there are zero natural resources in the Atacama except for sand and heatstroke.

Nevertheless, it was great to hike through the canyons and take pictures of the lakes within. Also, we met really nice Argentines in the campsite on the two nights we stayed there. We have heard that Argentinos are stuck up and egocentric, but we have not found that to be the case at all. They were lots of fun and very generous: the first night our neighbors gave us pork chops and the second night our new neighbors bought us beer, munchies, and gave Stew a cup when they found out about the tragic thievery in Guatemala that claimed so many of his belongings. Everybody gave us great advice about what to do in Buenos Aires, in which...

We arrived on Superbowl Sunday after a very long bus ride from San Rafael. Our bus got in at 9 in the morning, it was raining, and we couldn´t find a hostel. Thus, we sat down and ate chorizo and drank wine until the rain stopped. It didn´t stop but we didn´t care anymore and walked our way to Tango Hostel. Stew´s friend Mike works here and recommendedly strongly against staying there. It was the only place we could find a bed, so it seemed like a good idea. Our room was great, if eccentric. We had a spiral staircase to a lofted bed but nothing but a chest on the ground floor. The need for the elevated bed was unclear but who cares as long as it is comfortable.

We went to a gringo bar with Mike to watch the superbowl. The bar could have been any sports bar in the states: plasma screens, pricey beers, no Spanish, and fans from New York being tools. There was, fortunately, a feed in English which was great because the commentary in English makes much more sense than in Spanish. Most importantly (to Tori) we saw the American commericals. Most importantly (to Stew) we ran into one of his friends from Semester at Sea in the bar which was completely random and fortuitous.

We´ve spent the last couple days walking around the city, seeing the sites and experiencing the culture.
Recolletta Cemetary is the bizarre resting place of Argentina´s dead elite, housed in truly opulent mausoleums. They look like mini mansions of the creepy dead. We saw Evita´s grave which was also weird (the whole idea of walking around people´s blinged out coffins is weird) because everyone was so solemn about being there while they took their tourist photos. We can only imagine them later saying, ¨This is me in front of Evitas coffin, isn´t that awesome?¨as if this isn´t bizarre.

Casa Rosada is a pink palace with catacombs that are open the 3rd sunday after a blue moon when it is also a prime number, the same as every museum in Latin America. This day, they were closed for renovations, which is also a common occurrence.

Epic statues and architecture that define the micro center (actually quite large) including one of San Martin´s bucking horse while he waves a speared flag in the air. Totally epic.

Nearby, we saw a protest for social justice and better living conditions. These are more common than coins in Argentina.

A formalized drum circle that is a big tradition among the locals here, who are apparently huge hippies, and a bunch of tourists. Great beats, better people watching. Australians love tank tops, Germans love them more, and some body (not sure who), likes dancing shirtless.

Yesterday, we met up with Stew´s friend Claire at her apartment in Belgrano (a neighborhood of BA) and hung out by the pool in her building. Later, we went bowling. We were refused bumpers on the ground that we were too old to need them. Everyone else in the building had them which made us jealous of all the sub 12´s around us. One of Claire´s friend was going back to the States today, so we all went out for a fabulous mediterranean meal which included: falafel, hummus, pitas, schwarma, beef stuff, and a great Malbec. All in all, a fantastic meal that fulfilled one of our cravings. WHERE ARE YOU SUSHI??

We moved out of our dorm today because bed bugs minus airconditioning = suck. Tomorrow we go to Carnaval in Gualeguachu with Mike, Claire, some new friends from Australia, and maybe our friends from Panama that have just moved to Buenos Aires.

Amor,

Esteban y Victoria

Valparaiso to Mendoza: Peace out Pacific Ocean!

We ended up spending 4 days in Chile´s far-out coastal city of Valparaiso, sneaking in a quick side trip to Viña del Mar, just a short metro ride away. The coolest thing to do in Valparaiso was to hike up it´s many hills to catch epic views of the huge port and colorful houses the city is famous for. Full disclosure: we did get a little lazy 2 times and take an ascensor, a type of tram/elevator. There are about 20 ascensores all over the city, most built in the late 19th century, and many Valaparaiseños use them to commute to work and whatnot, so riding them is a bit of a cultural, historical experience in it´s own right.

At the tops of Valparaiso´s cerros (hills), there are typically tourist attractions like musuems, overpriced restaraunts, hippies doing tricks, ect. As usual, most of the attractions we were most excited to see were closed...so, we opted for a more free-form, city exploration strategy of touring: walk up everything and around everything that looks pretty. We found some really cool stuff we never would have seen otherwise! First on that list is Pablo Neruda´s house (okay, finding this one was a little less free form), which we adored. We got a great audio tour, which helpfully detailed Neruda´s wild drinking habits while we gazed upon his well-equipped art deco bar, recited poetry for us in his smoking-lounge style study, poked fun at his bizarre china collections, and, in general, made sense of his particularly quirky house. It definitely lent us greater appreciation for Pablo Neruda. He is the man!

A highlight of Valparaiso is the street art -- the city is covered with mural-like graffitis that, stylistically, range from cyberpunk to old-school surrealism. We stumbled into a really cool photo exhibit in a museum dedicated to Admiral Chochrane, some swashbuckling british dude that helped the Chileans say ¨step off, Spain!¨. The musuem didn´t say much more than that about the admiral, but it did have an exhibit on a photo competition of pictures of Valparaiso. While we didn´t quite agree with the judges picks, they might know a little more about capturing the spirit of Valparaiso than we do.

Add in a few more art galleries, funky cafes, and glasses of delicious wine (love that carmenere!) later, and you have our experience in Valparaiso. As mentioned earlier, we also spent a day in Viña del Mar, which is known as a beach town. Unfortunately, we managed to show up on an exceptionally cloudy day. We walked through the city, which is not nearly as charming as Valparaiso, more like a classed-up Ocean City, MD, though Viña does boast a pretty colonial palace. We despaired, running out of things to when our big plan had been to go the beach, but miraculously found our way to an artisanal brewpub! In the time it took to sample their tasty beers, the weather brightened, we headed to the beach to catch some rays, and take some naps.
After Viña del Mar, we both decided it was time for something new...a new country! Chile is fabulous, don´t get us wrong, and there´s probably more to see there. but it´s also a little pricey...plus, Stew and Tori have developed quite a bit of wanderlust, and we yearned for the next adventure. And our ride to Argentina was quite the adventure....it was a doozy. We were told the bus from Valp to Mendoza, Argentina, would take 8 hours. This time estimate was correct, only it failed to include SEVEN hours waiting in line at the border from 1AM to 8AM. Also, for the entire time we waited in this line, our bus driver kept the lights in the bus illuminated. By the time we arrived in Mendoza, we were exhausted and starving. After 18 hours without eating, we ordered an enormous Roquefort, ham, roasted red pepper, and olive pizza. It was even more exorbitant that we exected it to be. The ham and cheese weren´t sprinkled, per se, they covered the entirety of the pizza! We know, not typical Argentine food, but we were starving and pizza was the first food we found. After this, we napped contentedly.

Mendoza is &!*·% awesome/hot! That´s hot in terms of temperture, folks. While we never did manage to stay in a hostel with air conditioning in our 4 days in this fantastic city, we had a great time...and drove off any potential thieves with our rank odors. In Mendoza:
-- we went for a walk in a giiannt park in the middle of the city, tried to climb Cerro Gloria (in the middle of said park, we failed to locate it), later returned to Cerro Gloria with Chilean tourists who had a car (A security gaurd got Stew in trouble for climbing on the monument),
-- went to one of the most famous zoos in South America (children harrassed monkeys, monkeys got back by escaping. No security guards yelled at anyone.),
-- went on a wine tour of the Lujan Valley, including visits to Clos de Chacras, an itty-bitty super old botique winery where we tasted malbecs and merlot; Terrazas de los Andes (Chandon), a muuch larger vineyard where we tasted torrontes, malbec, a cabernet sauvignos, and a ¨new world grand cru¨, had lunch at Ruka Malen -- five courses with wine pairings!; and, lastly, visited Susana Balbo´s winery, famous for its Crios line. She is also one of very few female winemakes in Mendoza. She is badass. It was a fantastic, gluttonous, and mildly intoxicated day.
-- went to the fabulous restaurant 1884 Francis Malmon in a antique vineyard (thanks to Tori´s Mom for a pimpin´ Channukah present -- the best meal on this trip!)
-- Got interviewed on Mendoza radio, where we may or may not have publicly made fools of ourselves due to difficulties deciphering the Argentines´ crazy accents


Mendoza was fabulous, and we are seriousy considering coming back in a few weeks for the wine festival. We may even rent an apartment here for a month, we liked it so much! Now, we are on our way to Malargue, where we are hoping to do some serious hiking after such a luxurious time in Mendoza.

Love,

Tori and Stew