email from rory - carnival!

here´s a great email i received from my friend rory who is traveling up in bolivia now:

Anyway, I am no longer feeling blleeahh, in fact yesterday was a dia dorado, one of the golden ones that makes this travelling gig all worth it. Best day ever!! Got up still blleeah, but the old lady in the hostel me vió con soroche (altitude sickness) and gave me a big cup of coca leaf tea, and for once I actually felt like my lungs were filling up when I breathed. So I said whattaya got for crippling toothache??? a few coca leaves on the tooth and it went numb, novocaine for the soul, and I was on my way. I went off on a tour to the silver mines (do you know about Potosí?? the Cerro Rico, the mountain of silver that built an empire, in 1600 it was one of the biggest richest cities in the world. For Carnival the streets were paved with silver. 8 million indigenous and African slaves died. Read 'Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina' Eduardo Galeano. READ IT!!) Before we went to the mines we stopped at the market to buy some presents for the miners, and yesterday was El Jueves de las Comadres, the womens carnival, all the bolivian women were in super high spirits, throwing confetti and streamers on all the girls. One old toothless lady stopped to kiss all the girls in our tour group on the cheek. When she got to me she said 'oh no, you´re not getting away' and when I stooped to kiss her she planted me one full on the lips. Good luck or what?? We headed to the mines which are still going strong after 450 years, and it was one of the most interesting, humbling, depressing things I´ve ever done. The miners work pretty much the same way as 400 years ago, in heat up to 45 degrees (that´s, eh, 120??) hauling rock and hammering. Average career before contracting Silicosis (black lung) is 10 years. We chatted to a miner, Alberto, who worked all day by himself in a tiny hole, hammering and hauling, hammering and hauling. He had 5 kids and did it for them, and when I asked if his sons would follow in his footsteps, he just turned away and muttered something in Quechua. I felt like an idiot. He´d been down in the mine for 17 years. He was the same age as me. He looked 50. Anyway, after the tour I ate and quickly checked my e-mail, to find out that Deco was coming to Bolivia, and that a photo of me kissing a bearded man is now on the internet. otra vez me matastes!!!!. Then I met up with our tour guides and some bolivian friends and other backpackers to celebrate the womens carnival. The biggest party was in the street market, where most women work, and the guide's wife has a stall. We did a little ceremony for the Pachamama and then spent hours drinking some crazy local alcohol and engaging in running water pistol and shaving foam fights with all the kids. There was a huge 6'6 guy from California, the kids called him King Kong and he would lift them up 2 or 3 at a time. One little guy taught me loads of words in Quechua, and then emptied his shaving foam can in my ear, and then said sorry, let me help you clean yourself up, and cracked a water balloon on my head. All this to the backdrop of Mariachi type brass bands. Wow!! we went to a nightclub and I vaguely remember promising free english lessons to half the bar, and singing Cuesta Abajo, that tango I always used sing when I was washing the dishes, with all the requisite emotions. I went home and the little old lady who gave me the tea was still awake, dancing in the kitchen, legless drunk, and for the 2nd time in one day I got a smacker on the lips from an old Bolivian lady. What a day. wish you were there. today I got up at 2. This carnival lasts 4 more days. argh. right, I'm going to look at your website thingy. Be cool!! you're in Buenos Aires, it's obligatory.

B.A. update

hot town. summer in the city.

all is well. liv, mac, jeff and christine all headed south to torres del paine but i haven´t been lonely because i welcomed a new roommate, dec. i met dec at the farm, irish king of one liners, traveling with rory. after the farm they headed north together until they hit the bolivian border when dec had to return to buenos aires because of an unfortunate "misplacement" of his passport. he was planning on heading back to ireland from BA but instead, after scoring a temp passport from the irish embassy, jumped on a bus and headed back north to meet rory again. below is an amusing email i received from him this morning regarding his trip:

"talk about an adventure ! So we took off from Yacuiba ( a smallborder town ) at 6.30pm ish. I asked for an aisle seat remembering that these buses would not be as plush. My seat was broken in that it wouldn´t stay up and the dude next to me, lovely man, had about 4 bags and so just took my bag out of the rack to shovel his in. I managed to get my bag back up eventually. Someone threw an egg at him about 5 mins into the journey,from the road I mean not on the bus. So we go about 500m really slowlybecause every bus company leaves at the same time and then we´re stopped and boarded by a million kids selling fruit and soda and empanadas and abolivian army dude screaming about "Has anyone got any meat etc..." in theirbags. So this is all like the first 45 mins and we haven´t gone a mile. The journey in theory is 10 hours according to the man beside me although the woman who sold the ticket claimed 8. I think she knew her driver to be honest. The dude was driving like Michael Schumacher going to an emergency.After a while I said "ok just sleep and it´ll all be over soon." Little didI know it was all about to start. The bus "broke down" after about 2 hoursand we took about 15 mins to get going again. Whatever tapping tires with rocks does it seemed to work. So we kept going till we hit a little town in the mountains after about 4 hours. We got back on the bus after I had alittle 2 bol ( 15 cents maybe ? ) burger with chips in the bun and I beganto nod off. I was having this wonderful dream. Well I say wonderful,wonderful in the sense that actual people I´d met on this journey were in it. They were out chasing kittens and that was why the bus had stopped in mydream. In reality the bus had stopped again beacuse we were on a thin roadwhere no overtaking was possible and the bus in front of us had developedsevere engine trouble. We had been stopped for a while I realised as I cameout of the dream. This was because a convoy of vehicles that could go no further were all stuck behind this damn bus. So of course our driver, whoseemed to be a bit of a good samaratin in that he stopped to pick up everylocal while other buses left them in dirt, was up tinkering around with thebus to beat the band. It was dark when I woke up. It was light when we left with our driver obviously keen to make up for lost time putting our bus into warp factor 9 to take some scary bends. As it is we arrived only 3 and a half hours past the stated time. I get the feeling as I wait for todaysfinal ( god willing ) bus journey that the adventure may only be beginning.This will be my fourth overnight bus in a week. This will make it 79 hours in this one week on buses. I´m doing my best to avoid deep vein thrombosis.Insanity however has been reached and breached long ago."

speaking of long bus rides. after torres del paine, liv and mac really wanted to check out the patagonia lake district. they were planning on doing that and then we were all going to meet in mendoza to continue our trip. they were talking about hitting up bariloche and i started urging them to take the two hour trip south to el bolson and to spend at least one night at the farm. as per usual, i began waxing nostalgic for the magic redonkness that is the farm and not only did i convince them to go, i convinced myself to go back. so, on march 6th, i´m boarding a bus for the 24 hour trip south, back to the farm...a little detour before we head to mendoza. i´m SO excited to be back on the farm (albeit not as excited for the bus ride) and this time with the girls. AMAZING. cannot wait.

together at last!

reunited and it feels so good. it really is possible to meet up with others without cell phones....uh. right. here we are, beginning of our trip together. what a jolly crew. actually, it's quite a tease because olivia and mackay are headed to torres del paine so we'll only be together a couple days before we split again. never fear, back together again soon. strolling around san telmo. from left: jeff, olivia, mac, christine. jeff and christine have been down here for a couple of weeks with liv and are headed to patagonia with liv and mac and will head back to the states after that.
san telmo is rad. not only is it the oldest neighborhood in BA, filling it with all these beautiful old buildings, it also used to be the upper rent district until a yellow fever epidemic drove the rich folk up north to the recoleta. all these big houses were sub-divided into tiny tenements where now artists and other working class people live....i mean, anybody thinking lower east side slash east village right about now? the massive amount of antiques in the area also fill it with all sorts of treasures to look at. it would be fun to actually buy some stuff but no way in hell am i gonna fit anything new into my pack.

mei and kel, ready for that vacation? the apartment is calling your name....

buenos aires!

i'm back in buenos aires and have decided to rent an apartment for three weeks. after soaking in some natural landscape, it's time to soak in some cultural cityscape. i absolutely love my apartment. it's in barrio san telmo, the oldest neighborhood in BA, as well as the land of tango and antiques apparently. i woke up this morning and looked off my balcony to find a american film crew filming a movie down in the street. just like being back in new york!
the top shot is the view off my balcony.
rumor has it that olivia and mackay are in town but now it's a matter of tracking them down. mac is somewhere in the city, liv might be somewhere in uruguay. hopefully a very very joyful reunion tonight. cannot wait.

me mataste

last dinner on the farm. from the left, matias, dante, nano and rosa.
dante! lounging at the river, very pleased with himself after stealing matias' bag of candy. also sporting my favorite dante sumo wrestler pony tail
me and ritmo, my favorite dog. her name is ritmo (rhythm) because she has this constant twitch, always keepin the beat. she accompanied me on my ventures into the forest to collect fence wood.


rory and dec (they are going to kill me when they find out that i posted this. but it's just so darn cute)
group photos!!!





me, angie, clara, maru












clara and angie filling bottles of plum liquour.









as if nano weren't cool enough, he is also a tattoo artist. here are a few pics of him in what became an evening activity of tattooing in the living room. he did five tattoos while i was there on the farm volunteers, etc. deep sigh of relief mom and dad, although i thought seriously of getting another, i decided against it. mei, if you had been there you know it would have been game on.

so those are some parting shots of the farm. i'm going to miss it so much. a place where people walk up the path, coming from different places for different reasons, and all sitting down at the dinner table to make a farm family for a day or two, and if you're lucky, maybe even a whole week.

dirty barefeet, nano at work on a latest tattoo, cleaning garlic in sunny patches of grass, hazy sunlight in the living room late afternoon, pigs trying to catch food mid-air, huevos verdes con jamon, oreos for breakfast, que voluda, picking peas plums raspberries, ritmo keeping the beat and good company, kittens in the feed shed, frisbee by the river, eating homemade ice cream in the 'park' grassy hill overlooking town, mate from a little red cup, diquiririrriris, river walking, ¡te mato!, poker night...drinking night, sleeping dante, lazy afternoons in hammocks, los simpsons, walking back from town in moonlight, cutting bottles, nano making fun of me and never understanding a word, reading between the lines, membrillo, ciruela, one liners.

home home on the farm

one of dante´s little friends picking raspberries.






nano and matias whipping up something tasty in the kitchen


wow. where to begin. well i´m here in el bolson and it is absolutely gorgeous. really small valley town. it looks like ojai in the winter on serious steriods. tons of farms tucked away here and there. the farm i´m working at, chacra el cielo, is insane. um, rustic. chop wood to heat the water for showers and for washing the dishes, hand wash clothing in tubs out back and line dry, chickens and geese and ducks wandering all over the place, 4 dogs, two fat and i mean FAT pigs (enormous), sheep, rabbits. the best part are the baby animals. there are tons of little chicks zipping about making high-pitched "cheep cheep cheeps" and tons of little kittens and baby rabbits.

the main house is where everyone lives. there is this dividing wood wall that separates the hostel room that has 10 beds where people sleep with the rest of the house. people also throw tents out back and sleep there. the cabin is way old and has a really cool co-op hippie feel. music is always playing, someone is always cooking or making bread or jam, little munchins are zooming around. the people who are there right now are awesome. two girls from england, a few argentines, two chaps from ireland and this young german kid who rode his bike from buenos aires south to the farm and is planning on continuing down to tierra del fuego.

things are super mellow. this morning i made the feed run around to all the animals and then cleared and planted a lettuce patch (oh how i wish i could say it were a cabbage patch). we wake up around 9:30, feed the animals, then everyone sits around and eats breakfast and drinks coffee and then we get to work. at around 4pm we eat lunch and then it´s siesta time. around 8pm everyone congregates again and chills. dinner is around 11:30pm or 12. meals are the best because a few people cook and then we all eat together. twelve or so people gathered around the table. for you stanford peeps, it´s like chi theta chi or synergy taken to whole new level.

rosa and nano along with there little boy dante are in charge of the farm. they are waaay chill. rosa was born in new hampshire and traveled around the US a bunch and then decided to settle down here with nano, a big big jolly argentine man who reminds me of the big kahuna (he does most of the cooking). so yeah, that´s a little taste of the farm life i suppose. the farm sits up on one of the valley mountains so the view is quite taking. it´s about an hour walk into town.