3 Months Already?

Holy Crap! It's been more than 3 Months! I made a top 10 list to recap, if simply for my own enjoyment & recollection. There are really many many runner ups, but hey, anything more than 10 would just be weird.


1) Carnival in Rio: This would have been a cultural explosion without the host I had. But with Brian and his family, I spent my days like a regular Carioci, going to the best blocos, meeting all his friends, eating home cooked feijoada, and participating in the official Carnival parade in the Sambodromo. Unbelievable.

All the different colors in the photo really bring out the Carnival/Rio experience:


2) Easter Island: Like a paradise. Free to walk anywhere on the island amongst the roving horses and view the Polynesian plants, see waves crashing against the cliffs, and view amazing sunsets with a backdrop of Maori statues.

Hanging with the Maori:

3) Hiking Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina: Never will I climb on a glacier again with crampons. Incredible scenery. Plus, the freshest water I’ve ever tasted my entire life.



4) Staying with a family in Ushuaia, Argentina: I could not have learned more about the farthest south city in the world without this family. Plus, we went on amazing hikes I would not have gone on, and shared many homecooked meals.



5) Spending 3 weeks in Buenos Aires. Meeting many people in many Rotaract clubs. Making great new friend with Lautaro, whom I couchsurfed with for about 4 days in Feb and 5 days in April (plus who helped me replace my lost credit card!). Staying with and going out with Brian from Columbia/Jersey. Sucking at the Tango on two occasions. Making friends with all the people living at the hostel I stayed at for 10 nights. Wandering the plazas and parks.

Three weeks requires at least two photos:




6) Being taken, 100% unknowingly, to a whorehouse in Sao Paulo. It is #1 for most uncomfortable experiences. It was topped off with the fact that Bruno, whom I had met about 30 minutes prior, didn’t speak 1 word of English, and thought he was doing me a great service. Shopping para mujeres, as he calls it. Maybe I should learn the phrase ‘Get me out of here ASAP’ in Portuguese before I go back to Sao Paulo. Hilariously awful experience.

I have no photos of this or of Bruno (sadly I did not get any with him). So here's my friend Thiago in Sao Paulo:


7) Floods in Montevideo with Gonzalo: I don’t know why , but it was a thing to remember, having to run from the Governor’s palace (which we were inside afterhours, nonetheless) to the car with my friend Gonzalo in Montevideo, getting 100% drenched, then driving home for 30 minutes whilst not being able to see a damn thing, and watching stuff float down the streets. Inundacion.



8) Drinking Mate with hosts: Mate in Montevideo. Mate in Buenos Aires. Mate in Mendoza. Mate in Bariloche. Mate in Santiago. Mate everywhere. Gotta love this stuff and how ingrained it is in the culture of Uruguay, Argentina, and somewhat in Chile.


9) Bus Rides: Truly the best way to see the countries. The winding road between Mendoza & Santiago was the most ridiculous stretch (especially considering that the Aconcagua mountain is the tallest in the western hemisphere).

10) Lima: By far the most chaotic, disorganized, city of my trip. For simply that, I actually liked the city. Taking a bus is truly an adventure there. Thank you Marco & Renzo for helping me negotiate the system and preventing injury when my Spanish sucked royally. It’s a pity every traveler I have met says they hate the city. It has a lot to offer, even if you end up with the runs.



I’m sure once I go to Paraguay, return to Brazil for awhile, make my way back through the Pantanal to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, & Colombia, the list will double, haha.

*Most terrifying moment: At 3am somewhere over the pitch black Brazilian jungle, the plane started moving violently then did one of those very large instant drops. The whole cabin screamed. I thought I was gonna plummet into the Jungle at that point, haha.


Other really cool stuff:
-Going to a semi final soccer match in Rio at Maracana Stadium. Vasco da Gama vs Fluminese. The subway after was ridiculous afterwards between Carnival & Soccer people.
-Eating Anticuchos in Lima
-Going to a Parilla in Montevideo & a Churrascaria in Rio.
-Feria de Matadores in Buenos Aires
-Visiting wineries in Mendoza
-Going to a birthday party with Ulises in Maipu, outside of Mendoza
-Going to Nati's friends aunt's house in the mountains outside of Santiago, Chile.
-Parque Tierra del Fuego Ushuaia.
-Going out with Brian & his Colombian friends in Buenos Aires.
-Learning to make empanadas twice in Bariloche & Ushuaia.
-Rush Hour subway rides in Buenos Aires.
-Seeing the houses on Ancud, Chiloe & Punta Arenas, Chile
-Seeing people use horses as a method of transportation in Montevideo & elsewhere
-Walter's Birthday festivities in Parana

Lima Day 1

I am alive. Got into Lima at the crack of dawn, had the task of taking a cab to my couchsurfing host's apartment in Santiago de Surco. Inevitably, I got ripped off, haha. My host Marco specifically told me not to pay more than a certain amount for a cab but of course I almost doubled that somehow! haha. Probably the first of many a screw up, but hey, its gonna happen.

I was dead when I got to my host Marco's apt after two 5 hour flights and a 4 hour layover, and for some reason he woke up at 3am today, so we both crashed for 3 hours. Then we headed out early afternoon for a full day of Lima action and a late almuerzo of ceviche before the cevicheria's closed. (You can't really get ceviche at night).

First we went to a local mercado, a place you wouldn't find without a host. The ceviche was awesome, it came with some purple juice drink called chicha, made from corn, uber delicous! The place had a few types of corn on it, some sort of friend tentacles (who knows...it was good), and a good sauce.

Marco took me around Miraflores & then to the coast. I was suprised at how clean Lima is, not what I was expecting, but I guess I have Mexico City DF in my head. The landscape near the ocean is breathtaking, think of a combo of Rio & ....mountains (or really big hills) coming up right from the ocean.

Two observations:
1) It is friggin humid here! It's like 75-80F, no rain, and sticky.
2) It is an ODD feeling stepping off a plane and being officially in summer.

So, the next highlight of the evening was to go get some anticuchos from this lady who is infamous in Lima and sets up her grill on a corner typically at 7pm every night. Anticuchos are skewered, grilled heart! Holy crap, it was delicious! It was some spicy stuff, so they balance it with choclos, corn on steiroids (to me). Literally, the kernels are twice as big as American corn and I felt like I was eating meat. The line for this place was around the block, they just strolled up with a portable grill and started taking orders.

My spanish is actually halfway decent. The accent here is easier than in Mexico, and they speak slower. However, my host lived in Texas for two years, so of course, we are talking in English, a big help, haha. The people are really friend too. We met at least 4 people waiting in line for the Anticuchos.

Also, the colectivos here are awesome, I love no door on my bus and the driver leaving the second my second foot gets in the door! haha.

The view from the roof of Marco's 3 story apartment building:


View of coast & pacific ocean from Miraflores:


Anticuchos and Choclo with my host Marco:


Ceviche:


They are grilling up the Aticuchos:


Colectivo!



Heading to either Pachacamac (Ruins & Pyramids 30 km from Lima) or downtown Lima. Then, either meeting up with more couchsurfers in the evening or meeting up with some Rotaractors. Huzzah!

Superbowl Sunday

For Superbowl Sunday, I looks like I will be partying with American Airlines, on my way to Lima via Miami!

Admittedly I am a bit nervous, not too much, but of course excited nonetheless.

Here is my gear, a backpack and messenger bag, 39 lbs for 10 months. Boy, will I stick out like a thorn! Gringo sighting!

4 Days Until Summer 2010

That's right. It will officially be summer for me when I land in Lima on Monday February 8th. Until June, that is, then it will be winter again...a whole different type of winter.

I just got back my Brazilian visa after picking it up at the consulate in San Francisco. Good thing I'm unemployed, cause getting there at 1:45 in the afternoon on a Monday isn't the most convenient thing. A pain in the ass process, but you can't blame them, we do the same thing to them.

I have my hostel booked for Easter Island. Hooray! Hopefully I'm not sleeping with the cockroaches, it'll be awesome.

I finally finished an ESL teacher training course online. I think it helped me a bit in terms of knowing things to expect, but once I get down to Chile I know it will be totally different. I'm not sure what the school will be like, what age my students will be, how much support I will have, etc. I think most difficult part about the whole trip won't be the travelling, the adapting my current Spanish skills, or even living with a family for 8 months, it will be teaching and trying to teach well. This, from a trained engineer. HA!

I was able to get in contact with some Rotaractors in Lima so I'm going to meet up with them one day. In Uruguay, too, I made a few contacts in Montevideo, so I'll have people to meet up with. I'm still working on Buenos Aires & Mendoza.

My week in Rio is shaping up to be an awesome time. My host seems pretty cool and we have been talking on Skype every once in awhile. Blocos, Soccer, Barbecues, Beaches, and all other fun things seem to be shaping up already, not to mention Carnival.

It's also an odd feeling not having an Iphone anymore. Actually, it's kind of liberating, haha!

The First Steps!

After days of reasearching flights to different parts of South America, scouring the internet, and trying to find the cheapest way to get to Rio, I found a flight to Lima for only $332! Awww shucks, looks like I'll have to go to Peru for a bit... :)

One thing that was pretty crazy was the difference in price between one-way and round-trip flights. For example, my ticket to Lima is $332, ROUNDTRIP! I fly from SFO-Miami on Feb 7th, have a 3 hour layover in Miami, and have a red-eye out of Miami on Feb 7th that arrives in Lima at 5:30 in the morning on February 8th. I have a return flight to SFO on Feb 23rd, which I won't be using. Maybe I can sell it to some unsuspecting Peruvian, like a scalped cubs ticket....jk..Looking up one way flights to Lima and other South American cities though, some of them were even in the $1000 range! To go directly to Sao Paulo or Rio was going to be at least $700. Guess I'll take a 3 day stay in Lima! Whoohoo! I'm flying this one american too, so I'll rack up some more mileage.

I then booked yet another roundtrip from Lima-Rio, only $300!. I leave Lima at the buttcrack of dawn, 1245AM, on Feb 11th, so I guess maybe I'll end up heading to the airport in early evening. The best part of this gig is that there is a plane change in Sao Paulo on both the departing and returning flight. Well, I was planning on going to Sao Paulo for awhile anyways before or after Rio to visit my buddy Thiago, who I met through Rotaract last year. So, I'll end up using the first leg of the return flight Feb 18th and just hop off in Sao Paulo for a weekend or so! Sweet! The flight from Lima-Rio also flys into the smaller Rio airport (SDU), which is right downtown. I've read this is the best way to get into the city quickly as opposed to the main Rio airport, I'll be able to access public transport on my way to my homestay.

Next up, I need to decide when to leave Sao Paulo & find a flight to Montevideo. After that, ground & water transport only to Santiago! Oh yeah, and get a Visa to Brazil, it might come in handy. Looks like its going to be a pain the the arse to get one. Guess theyre sticking it to us for sticking it to them. Equality for the win.

Hooray for the first post! Hopefully improvents to layout will ensue!