mendoza

so after santiago, we bused through the andes and back into argentina to a mendoza. mendoza is always likened to napa because it is the wine mecca of argentina. it was a bit shocking to arrive in a city of a million inhabitants after picturing mendoza as a quaint little town of B&Bs. regardless, we´re having a splendid time. we met up with team colorado: slade, brett and jodi. mackay and olivia met slade and brett while hiking to torres del paine and our paths happily crossed again here. jodi is brett´s sis and is visiting for spring break. yesterday team colorado took us climbing. we were all rockstars for the day. top pic is olivia, then me, then mackay, then slade, jodi and brett.

other than that, lots of drinking wine out of a big jug and laughing til we can´t breath. i really can´t imagine anything better.

like, bummer dude

i took some sweet pics from our week in santiago but unfortunately a couple days ago our room got robbed. mac and liv lost some money, i lost my ipod and my digital camera. ouch. big time ouch. fortunately i had uploaded a lot of pics so most were saved but our time in santiago, not so lucky.

quick recap:
so we left pucon for santiago. while we were camping in pucon we met two kids who were also camping up there named matt and kimmy. we said our farewells to matt and kimmy and headed out of the mountains, jumped on a bus, and arrived in santiago. a couple days later, olivia and i were in the metro and the train pulled up and the doors opened and who was standing there? matt. he and kimmy had gotten lost on the hike back, he missed his flight out of santiago, and now he had a week to kill before heading to the states. it was a crazy run in. we asked him where he was going and he said that he didn´t know and was just planning on riding the train to the end and walking into the mountains to camp...funny, seeing as the metro ends in the middle of massive city. we invited him to join us for a few days so he did.

santiago was awesome. that city doesn´t get enough credit. it´s awesome. we ate lots of avocados, did some serious shopping, visited valparaiso, toured though one of pablo neruda´s three houses (also, another strange thing, matt´s great grandfather was one of neruda´s close friends and there was a pic of him in the house!), went to a manu chao concert (good show, horrible sound quality), and best of all hung out with my old host family. my chilean family cooked us a big asada our last night in town. just love them so much.

chile, po

we be in chile! yeah, po.

so we had these high hopes of leaving the farm, heading north in argentina to a town called san martin and then crossing through the andes in a boat (yes, the same boat ride che graced many years ago). so after a few mishaps along the way, we finally found ourselves in san martin ready for our cruise. no dice. somehow everyone we met failed to mention the fact that the boat we wanted to take only set sail once a week and we weren´t stoked on the idea of chilling in san martin for many days soooo....back on the bus and over the mountains we went.
we crossed over the andes and into the chilean lake district. we were going off the advice of a nice American girl we had met on one of our bus rides and settled in a little outdoorsy town called pucon. the next day we headed for cañi ecological sanctuary (where the american was volunteering) outside of town where we hiked into the mountains and camped out for a few nights. it was absolutely gorgeous. i´ll let the pictures do the talking but it was pretty amazing. reminded me of never never land, complete with crazy lookin trees and mermaid lagoons.

the top pic is us on top of the mirador, just a half hour away from our camp. spectacular 360 view of the area where you can see THREE huge snow-capped volcanoes all in a row.

the middle is our camp a dawn.

the third, a nearby lake and the crazy trees.

in a couple hours we are jumping on an overnight bus to santiago!

tat pics

oofa

kinda behind on the whole blog entry thing. reunited with the girls and time has flown. SO good to be traveling with friends. laughing lots. having lots of fun.

as i was traveling south from BA, they were traveling north from tierra del fuego. i beat them to the farm by a day and what a day it was. so good to be back with nano, rosa, dante and the various farm animals in all their hilarious glory. i was welcomed back by the annoucement that two of the dogs had gotten into a big fight and ripped eachothers faces apart pretty badly. four of us had to hold tigre down as we cleaned and then super-glued his chin back together. nano is amazing. farm owner, chef, tattoo artist, vet. seriously, the dude can do anything. it was intense but i´m happy to say that both the dogs are doing fine and back to being friends.

liv and mack came in the next morning and before we knew it, a week had passed. what did we do for a week? hard to say. but thoroughly enjoyed every minute. lots of eating fresh bread and jam, drinking beer, eating ice cream, hiking, trip to the river, playing with kittens, cozying up in our sleeping bags up in the loft and discussing what the hell we plan on doing next year aaannndd...oh mei and kel, you´re gonna love this one....

getting tattoos! liv and i got tattoos. nano is such an amazing artist and drew up some beautiful designs. liv got a stylized piece of wheat on the middle of her back and i got a california poppy on the lower right side of my back. now i have a little bit of california and a little bit of the farm wherever i go. i´ll try to post some pics of us getting them tomorrow. it was pretty funny. when i was getting mine nano just kept yelling with a thick argentine accent "stop moving!"(yes yes, i have a hard time sitting still for anything more than a minute or so). and when olivia got up to bat she started off with a round of breathing exercises followed by two rounds of radiohead´s the bends as mack and i cheered her on from the kitchen while we made dinner.

must run. more tomorrow.

hasta luego BA

tomorrow i jump on my 24 hour bus south. back to the farm.

the good, the bad, the ugly of BA

good things:
1. the orange juice carts on every corner where they squeeze a big glass of oj right before your eyes for 65 cents. ojai orange snob's dream come true.
2. chocolate milk. it is just better down here. i drink it by the gallons.
3. the fact that you can still pick up the paper and read about daring robberies. for example, a few weeks ago there was a huge bank heist here in BA complete with tunnels dug under the bank, millions of dollars stolen and get away drivers. another example in brazil during carnival. some robbers waltzed into a museum, stole a monet, a picasso, a matisse and a dali and then walked out and disappeared into the crowd of a carnival samba parade passing by... how very thomas crown of them.
4. the fact that there are big beautiful old and seemingly abandoned buildings, mansions, etc all over. some are for rent, some are for sale, some have been forgotten for now. it just fun to think about who lived in them and what´s inside them and imagine buying one and fixing it up...hmm. yes. i like that idea very much.

bad things:
1. no spice. even the tabasco in markets are a special "mild" version. i...just...don´t...understand. please inform ruben´s that i will be on a strict diet of azteca burritos extra chipotle upon my return.
2. walking around town and having to shovel through smog and exhaust. you say the miners of potosi suffer from black lung? try the porteños of BA. good grief.
3. the subway closes at 10:30! i mean helllloooo? they don´t go out to dinner here until 9:30pm and yet the subway closes at 10:30? makes getting home from say...oh, i don´t know, a concert, very very difficult because 70,000 people are all trying to take the bus or a taxi at the same time.
4. trying to break a $100 peso bill. it´s the only thing the atms distribute and yet nobody will accept them. tricky. very tricky.


my time here has been delightful and i have loved wandering this city. and while tromping through the forests in the patagonian lake district made my appreciate the california backcountry all the more; pounding the pavement of buenos aires has made me reflect on the wonder that is new york city. now that is a great city. the greatest on earth? quite possibly. can you get an oj for 65 cents?...ha, right, more like $6.50 plus tax and tip...but an exceptional place nonetheless....

even better than the real thing - U2 in buenos aires

where to begin.
even for those who hate bono and are not a fan of u2's music, last night was a sight to behold. i was lucky enough to go to the first of their two concerts here in buenos aires and i have never witnessed anything like it.

the city has been an absolute buzz of excitement for these shows. everywhere you turn there something regarding the shows. the tickets were going for a bigillion dollars and i didn't think there was a chance in hell that i'd score a ticket but, as is usually the case, my dear friend craigslist came the rescue. i posted a want add and got a few responses from people who really jacked up their prices and then finally i got one kind soul who only did a 50% mark up, fernando. he said he liked my name (i think he said that his mother's name is anne or something) and he noticed from my email signature that i had lived in nyc and he loves nyc so he thought it was a sign or something. when i met fernando we talked about how he has traveled all over the world and seen all sorts of concerts but how a concert in argentina is different. he said the energy and passion here cannot be matched. holy shit. he was so right.

the show was scheduled for 10pm. he told me to get ther around 3pm. what? i didn't take his advice but i also didn't realize that it is not just the hardcore fans that show up five hours early, the WHOLE stadium shows up five hours early.

when i got there, i positioned myself up high in the stadium because i was as interested in seeing the crowd interact with the band as much as i was interested in seeing the band. franz ferdinand opened and they started their set with an intro cover of neutral milk hotel which led into one of their own songs. wha? awesome! they were really fun and got the crowd all crazy like. the crowd was already in high-spirits. u2 as only been to argentina once before and it was almost a decade ago so every individual in the stadium had to swim the deepest ocean, climb the highest mountain, fight a couple dinosaurs, walk over hot coals and then throw down a load of cash in order to get their hands on a ticket. they were AMPED.

and then u2 came on. i wish i had the words to describe the crowd. it was absolutely one of the most amazing and beautiful things i have ever seen in my life. it was so beautiful i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. looking down and just seeing this mass of humanity, this sea of people, a liquid crowd moving together. so happy, so enthralled, so overwhelmed. 70,000 people, a small city, 7 or 8 times the size of ojai. everyone singing every single word, fixated on one point. just blew my mind. those thousands of people turning into one entity for three hours. on top of that, i've never seen the band perform like they did. the energy totally ignited then. they were insane. near the end, bono kept approaching the microphone in order to say something but he couldn't seem to get the words out(and if there is one thing that the man never lacks, it's words). he kept stepping up and then taking a step back and just looking out in awe shaking his head. finally, he said, "we will never forget this. you've been the best", then he stepped back and looked out some more like he couldn't leave the stage. at the end he finally said thank you and good night as the rest of the band was leaving the stage but he just continued standing there blown away.

ah, music. amazing.