Toilets & Birthday Parties

I always like seeing the toilets in different countries, different hostels, and different houses. The flushing mechanism is always in a different place. Pull Cords, buttons on all sides, levers, and anything you can think of. However, this one takes the cake. Cut a hole in the wall above the toilet where the plumbing is and pull up on the lever!


On a side note, Uruguay and Argentina seem to have bidets everywhere, literally, but I didn't notice any in Brazil or Lima.

I don't know how I always manage to get myself into these great situations, but last night I went to a birthday party in Maipu, Argentina last night with about 30 Argentinians, in the front yard of someones home. There was a great asado with various cuts of meat and chorizo, a 20 pack of silly string involved for some post asado chaos, music and dancing, and lots of beer and Fernet provided. Hadn't had Fernet before, but they mixed it with Coke and it tasted like cough syrup. No English speakers present, but all super nice people. Needless to say, I was dropped off at my hostel at 6:30 am the next morning. Phew.

With Ulises (from Rotaract), post silly string.


One of the hosts, who was most certainly hammered and very jolly:


Argentinian Fernet:


Chaos continues, I certainly was not exempt from this:


In all his glory (Ok, he posed a bit for this, but still, its funny):

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Sitting here in the lobby of my hostel in Mendoza waiting for a guy I met today from Rotaract Mendoza to pick me up to go to a birthday party tonight. Its nice to finally be re-submerged in totally Spanish speakers.

I've been in hostels since last Sunday and have been able to speak reasonable amount of Spanish, but in general, people speak English at them. You always bump into people from Europe, Canada, & Australia, and they speak to each other in English. In some ways, it is great to hear about what other people did, where theyve been, etc, and get tips. Sometimes, though, it is just a broken record, because everybody is going to the same places on the gringo trail. Needless to say, I really like staying with people through Rotaract/Rotary and couchsurfing when I can. There are plenty of people in these hostels with their checklists out...I'd like to at least meet and make some new friends while I am at it instead of speed racing to some goal of checking all the places off lonely planet tells you to go. I've been doing a pretty good job of that I think, thanks to couchsurfing & Rotaract.

So I returned to Mendoza last night after 3 days in Uspallata, which is roughly two hours away, but literally in the middle of nowhere in the Mountains. Very calm & peaceful. The hostel there had a creek behind it and was surrounded by towering Andean mountains. It was a beautiful and blistering 1-1/2 hour walk into town (a whole 3 or 4 blocks of shops, haha).

The first day in Uspallata I rented a bike and biked my brains out in the desert-like mountains in the area. I hiked up a few small peaks to catch a view of the green valley below. It really is amazing. Desolate doesn't begin to describe the area outside the town. It was even cooler just being all alone in a giant valley:



The next day, I took a breather and just relaxed. I walked to town with a a girl from Buenos Aires and a girl from Canada who I more or less kind of was travelling with for a 4 or 5 days. She was also in English Opens Doors, and we bumped into each other in the hostel in Mendoza 5 or 6 days ago. Anyways, the girl from BA knew nada English, so I really got some good practice in and we talked about things for 3 or 4 hours.

Finally, I ponied up and took a tour on Friday of some of the sights in the area. We went to the border with Chile & Argentina, up a hairy 300+ turn dirt road, up to view a Christ statue at 13,000 ft(suprise, my 3rd christ statue this trip, but this IS South America, afterall, land of the Catholics). We also went to a few other places, including Puente del Inca, a natural land bridge formed in the glacial period, and of course got many looks at the Aconcagua, the western hemispheres tallest mountain, at almost 23,000 ft.



The road up:


Puente del Inca:


Christ statue. My first steps into Chile, then back:


Me & Aconcagua:


After my return to Mendoza, I finally got to meet up with some of the Rotaractors from a club here in Mendoza. I walked to meet Ana, the girl I had been talking to, and we walked to a members house, where the meeting took place. It had been since last Sunday or so since I was part of rapid fire group Spanish, so again, now I only got about 50% of the stuff :( Anyways, tonight I'm going out to this birthday party with one of the guys in the club, and tomorrow afternoon I'm going with the club to take some mate and relax in a park.

With the club members of Rotaract Mendoza Norte at the house for the meeting:


I've also decided that Uruguayans and Argentinians have lost their heat sensors on their tongues. The water they use in their mate is fresh off the the stove and while I wince at taking scalding, boiling water down, none of them seem to think about it for a second. It always takes a few days for my tongue to recuperate.

Finally, I have decided to go to Santiago on Monday. I still quite nervous after the last big aftershock (err, earthquake) a few days ago. But I've been talking to a few people I know in Santiago and all seems well there. I take a bus there Monday, right over the Aconcagua, then and fly out to Easter Island Tuesday morning until Friday. The airline wont refund me, so it's now or never for Easter Island. After that, I don't have a real plan, but I probably will head south, through Barriloche, Argentina (might take a week of classes there), and see if I can make it to Patagonia before the chill sets in. Then maybe make my way back up the east coast of Argentina, possibly Paraguay pending a few things, and definitely Bolivia, northern Chile, and Peru...maybe even Ecuador and Columbia. Unfortunately, I may have to avoid southern Chile cause of the quake action.

Montevideo….a city definitely unto its own. A small big city in a small country. A lot of old with a splash of new.

My impression of Montevideo is that the people are very friendly, life is a bit slower, and there I just enough to satisfy everyone without having too much.

Prior to arriving in Montevideo, I had contacted Rotaractors and Rotarians there to arrange a homestay. I began emailing with Gerardo, a Rotarian on one of Montevideo’s Rotary clubs. Via email, Gerardo assured me in advance that his club would host me and show me around Montevideo.

Well, Gerardo and his club were genuinely great hosts! At the airport, I was greeted by Gerardo’s son and daughter, Gonzalo and Veronica, 20 & 23, and got to know them over the next three days as we spoke spanglish together.

Gerardo owns a machine shop, and I even found it pretty interesting as I went to his machine shop about 3 times during my stay there. He owns the most awesome 1970ish Peugot wagon, which nobody would blink an eye at in a city like Montevideo, when mixed amongst much newer cars, even much more older, and horse drawn carriages owned by the poorer people of the city.

It’s difficult to describe, but I was bounced around for 3 days between different Rotarians and Rotaractors, taken to different places around Montevideo, ate lunch with different families and people, and generally got to know a lot of different people in a short amount of time.

For example, on my first day, Gonzalo took me around to a few tourist sights. We drove up to the cerro in Montevideo, of course an old fort overlooking the river to guard the city, with amazing views of Montevideo. Then we walked around the center, before proceeding to the congress palace. It was about 6pm, and the palace closed at around 4pm. Of course, I was just following Gonzalo around, and somehow we ended up inside the palace despite the closure, with all the lights off, wandering the halls! I don’t know for sure we definitely were not supposed to be there, but it was both of our first times there. We left the palace to a torrential downpour, which caused massive floods in Uruguay & Buenos Aires. Yikes.

Mate….I really didn’t expect it to be as much a part of the culture in Uruguay as it is. People drink mate at work, in the car, on the beach, and at all times of the day. Mate is a drink derived from the yerba plant, an herb, and tastes like really bitter tea. The mate cup is usually a wooden bowl hollowed out from a small pumpkinlike plant, then filled with yerba herb, and sipped on with a bombilla, a metallic straw with holes at the bottom to filter out the yerba plant. The Uruguayans don’t go anywhere without their thermos, to hold piping hot water and refill the mate cup. Literally, I think they are crazy for this stuff. Needless to say, I was able to enjoy this with my various hosts over a few lazy afternoons. Dont mind if I do....

The country is not rich, there is a large amount of poor people, but they get by better than poor people in the US due to the fact that most of them actually have jobs and health care access. It is readily evident because many of them use horse drawn carriages for transport.

Montevideo=great little city. The end. Stay tuned. –From Colonia, Uruguay.

Neighborhood near Gonzalo's & Gerardo's house:


From the Cerro in Montevideo:


With Gonza in the palace after hours, just before getting drenched by the torrent:


The fun downpour:


Mate one afternoon with Gerardo. Sipping the bombilla, thermos absent, ha:


Asado in Mercado Puerto with Mario. We had chorizo, morcilla (blood chorizo), some intestine stuff, and some random cuts of meat). Friggin delicious:


Above La Rambla, Uruguays version of Chicago's lake shore drive:


Gerardo & family, including the dog!:


Mate, Bombilla, Thermos!


Asado:

Lima-Rio

Well, still alive and made it to Rio in one peice. Thought I'd recap my last 2 days in Lima.

Tuesday we ate ceviche yet again. Delicious, too much seafood now though, I think my bowels are not liking me for that, for all those curious people...haha... Anyhow, my host in Lima Marco had 2 more couchsurfers arrive Tuesday from Ohio, and after ceviche we went to Marco's parents house. For some reason, garage doors are really intricately carved, I don't get it, must be because there are walls or gates on most houses so it's the only thing you see...Needless to say, the inside was really nice, felt like a grandparents or great grandparents house with all the nice things...ha.

We walked around central Lima later, and visited Iglesia San Francisco. Our tour was in Spanish...I needed to be 2 feet away from the guy to catch half of what he was saying haha. Nonetheless, I didnt learn a whole lot, but there were thousands and thousands of bones in the catacombs below the church, something similar to a cemetary.

Then, somehow, we managed to meet up with Luz, a Rotaractor, in the Plaza de Armas. She is 23 and doing some sort of pharmacy/medical thing. She didnt speak a lick of English and was incredibly chatty, so that was a bit of a trip. Marco wanted to take the Ohio'ans for Anticuchos (grilled heart), so I had that for the second night in a row. Renzo, president of rotaract valle escondido, met us up at the anticucho place, so then there were six of us. So Luz & Renzo had a suprise for me they said, which was they took me to a Rotary meeting. We took two combis to get there, one of them half broken, a total riot.

The Rotary meeting was at a CHIFA (Chinese) Restaurant. A combination of chinese & peruvian food, haha. Tasted like US chinese to me. I explained to the group in Spanish what I was doing, where I was going, and tried to talk about Rotaract in Chicago, etc, in Spanish. In the end, they presented me with a gift of a bottle of Pisco, a liquor used in making Pisco Sours. Awesome!

Wednesday I walked around the neighborhood Barranco with Marco, nothing spectacular, but relaxing. Then we went to a mercado to buy the ingredients to make Pisco Sours that evening :Limes, Eggs, Syrup, and Bitters. Two more couchsurfers showed up from Germany, so we made Pisco Sours for all that evening. One of the Germans had been travelling all over S. America for months, so she gave me so good advice on Buenos Aires, Mendoza, and even Easter Island!

So today I flew from Lima-Sao Paulo-Rio. Had to change airports in Sao Paulo, a bit of an adventure. There was a free airport transfer that I found after talking to about 3 different people. After I finally found it, the line was massive, and they said there was only 1 bus every hour! Great. I had a long layover, but the line was crazy. The girl in front of me had a huge backpack, and she looked like a bit of a gringo, so I asked her if she spoke English (she was from England & had been travelling for 4 months). There was a definite yes, and I asked her if she wanted to split a cab. Her flight was leaving in less than 2 hours, and it takes about an hour to go between airports. We went in to get some Brazilian Reals and hopped in a cab and got stuck in the great Sao Paulo traffic. Had some good travel conversations, and she got to the check in counter about 30 minutes before her flight left, I think she made it, but I had a good few hours, so I was ok. We exchanged info because she is going to be in Buenos Aires while I am there.

Finally I made it to Rio, my host Brian picked me up. We spent 20 minutes trying to ge this car out of the parking lot. Like a game where you have a car stuck between two parallel walls the width of the car, yeah that was fun, in 37C weather, so we were dripping wet. Brian lives in Flameco in a 1st floor high rise near the beach, a great area. Within 10 minutes they asked me if I wanted to be in the Carnival Parade in the Samodromo in the Rotary float on Saturday & Sunday. I said heck yea!!! Wow, that was a stunner for me, once in a lifetime chance. His mom actually speaks some Spanish, so that's how I have to communicate with her.

On the horizon: Futbol game at Marcana Stadium Saturday, and some blocos and meeting Brians friends. Should be an entertaining 7 days here in Rio. I'd upload pics, but I gotta take a nap, running on 4ish hours from the two flights today.

Oh, I forgot, I had a 45 minute conversation in Spanish with the taxi driver to the Lima airport last night! It was awesome! His son is a mechanical engineer so he gave me his card and I gave him my email address, and he said his son is also studying English, so he may email me for practice. Really nice taxi driver.

Phew, I am pooped, but someones gotta do all this. It's hard, I know.

Here are my photos from Lima: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?id=31400194&aid=2117000