Cuzco, Machu Pichu, Bailamos!

Hola Chicos! I have just been spending some of the best days of my trip with my good buddy Andy Grock, Grockster if you will. After arriving in Arica for the surf contest I spent approx an hour looking for a place to stay that wasnt 15 dollars, and found one that was 7. I was excited. The wave called the Gringo was one viscious wave. it broke in about waist high water on top of rocks, let me tell you there were some concussions and stiches the first day, and the second day the first surfer broke his board on the first wave of the day, after which the top 50 surfers in the world decided they were too scared to surf. It was cool being there, and I managed to run into this girl from new zealend whom I met on the bus from the airport in Santiago. We played hacky sack, and I think had more people taking pictures of us then anything else.

After the amazing game of hacky sack I had the three consectutive most shady meals of my trip. First I had some civiche in a mercado where they had posted all kinds signs (about 3) saying Do not eat uncooked fish as it is bad for you. As we all kniow civiche is uncooked fish. Then I bought some salmi and bread and fruit, after which I crossed the border into Peru. A note, apparently crossing a border with bread, chicken, (of which I had a drumstick from the night before) fruit and vegetables (I had a carrot) is illegal. I was sweating when they x-rayed my bag. Right after the x-ray they started yelling and I thought I was done for, but they just stopped this nice looking lady with a bag full of what looked like Marijauana. Another note, traveling at high speeds in a 50 year old ford with 7 people in it across a border in the middle of a desert is a nerve racking experience, oh yea, no seat belts. But I had to do it to save about 30 bucks on my bus which I bought in Tacna, Peru, and was still way overcharged for.

Buses in Peru are not like busses in Chile or Argentina. Wow, understatment of the century. When we finally got on this but to Puno we had a box of hamsters (to eat) a box of chickens (for eggs) and three dogs (to eat?). It was the smelliest longest most miserable bus trip, well until my next overnighter in Peru. We arrived at about 13,000 feet on the banks of Lake Titicaca, and watched the sun come up over the highest navigable lake in the world. I then got on a 6 hour bus to Cuzco which was fun, but also quite miserable.

Cuzco is a wonderful city, full of historic spanish buildings built out of the stones which were once ancient Inca buildings. I arrived and got a look at the festival of the sun. Wow! Every city in the province had representivitves and they were all dancing through the streets. I had a great steak dinner which cost a fortune (read 15 dollars but I hadnt eaten anything but old chicken, bread and salami for hours). The dinner was good fun as I sat overlooking the plaza where all the action was. I talked to everybody who sat next to me and actually ended up seeing all of them again in Agaus Callientes. The next day all of the locals left and only tourists were left to see the actual Inti Raymi or Festival of the Sun. We hiked to a few plazas and I actually bought a tour so I wouldnt have to be alone. We saw the sacrifce of a llama and then the burning of the llamas heart to try and determine the future, which looked good. Another note, evrybody in Peru lies constantly. It is actually amazing. I wazs told we would have food, seats and tour guides who spoke quechua on this guided tour. We had no seats, (we sat on a hill with trees blocking the festival), no lunch (a bar of coca leaf grain doesnt count) and I am convinced our guides were making up what the festival was all about. But it was fun, and the next morning Grock came!

More later, right now I need to catch a plane, yea I splurged 11 hours in a bus or 30 minutes in a plane, to Arequipa!

El Norte y el Sur de Chile

Hola todos! While in Santiago I felt as though I were home. I had a nice bed to sleep in, my parents were there (thanks Andreas and Vicki) and all around it was comfortable and nice. Of course I wanted to leave as quickly as I could. I left the warm house of the Vorwerk´s late one Sunday night for the freezing confines of the Transantiago buses followed by one of the worst, ok the worst busride. I made the HUGE mistake of choosing the window seat in the front of the bus. There were only two seats and I chose wrong. I had so little room that my right foot had to be angled all night. I had dreams of beds, and during the night every single part of my body fell asleep at some point. Despite this my time in Pucon couldnt have been nicer. When I arrived Sergio, the cousin of Cecelia, a grad student in the lab I worked in, picked me up right on time. It was so nice to talk with him as he was super excited to have me and to go on some adventures! We grabbed some bread and made for his house, 30 km out of town. it was the exact opposite of Santiago. No smog, no traffic, just pure nature. He lived with his mom on a piece of land that has its own natural hot springs! They are not quite ready yet, but as I was reminded many times by the time I return they will be. When I arrived we immediately went to a museum, and then began the preperation for an asado we were going to have. I learned the two most important, ok really the only two ingrediants for an asado are lots of meat and lots of beer. We got about 5 pounds of beef ribs and 7 liters of beer, and some tomatoes and other stuff to. We then went for a nice hike to see two lakes near Sergios house, (it aint called the lake region for nothing), and then started the asado. We were forced to do the asado under a little auxilliary house that Sergio had and were thusa bombarder with smoke during the entire process, but we got it done. We had to sit out there stoking the fire, drinking beer, and just having a great time for about 3-5 hours, Im not sure as the beer was steadily working its magic. By the time the ribs were done they were the most beautiful things I have ever seen, crispy, covered in fat, and perfectly tender. Needless to say we ate them all, and went back out to the fire to finish off the beer.

The next day we woke up a little late to a scolding by Sergio´s (and my) mother who was incredulous that we finished as much beer as we did. We then left to see the Cuevas (caves) on the side of the volcan Villarica. As we bagan the ascent we realized we couldnt make it in Sergios car and decided to walk the rest, in about a meter of snow. After an hour or two walk in the snow, (oh yea it was snowing as well), and we arrived. It looked like there wasnt another person around, and I began to blame Sergio, until we saw a girl in the ticket booth. Sergio rapped on the glass and the girl asked, ¨hello have you come to visit the caves?.¨ I had to hit Sergio to keep him from saying, ¨No, we came for a cup of tea,¨ but it was a ridiculous question. After speaking with Sergios friend we got a free tour of the caves and a free ride ont he back of a modified snow pickup with some Brazillians, sweet. That night we had a great soup made with some of the ribs that we didnt use in the Asado, and then we went to a hot springs nearby where Sergio had some friends.

The next day we visited some waterfalls all around Pucon, and had an amazing lunch of homemade Fetuccini Alfredo and great donuts made from pumpkin. After thislunch I decided I was far to comfortable and left for the furthest south point that I would reach, Valdivia.

Valdivia was a cool ciudad, between rivers. The fish market was amzing with some of the freshest fish I have ever seen, and lobos del mar, otherwise known as sea lions, sitting right next to the fishermen witing for scraps. I went for a long walk and ended up by some forts which were used to defend the city from attacks by pirates and by the native mapuche who kicked the settlers butts quite a few times. I had some great fish for lunch and then saw the news which featured Santiago up to it neck in water and I knew I had to head back for some snowboarding.

The busride back was so much better than the one down, it cost less, the legroom was immense , and it even smelled better. I arrived back in Santiago to find the rumors of traffic were not exagerated too much as it took em about two hours to get across town. However the sun was incredible, the first sunlight I saw in Santiago. It looked especially amazing as it struck all of the two meters of snow that had fallen in the preceeding two days! As I already wrote, I went snowboarding two days, the second being incredible, the first indecipherable.

It was near this time that my good friend Andrew Grock, AKA Grockster, emailed me and informed me of his plans to meet me in Peru ASAP. I therefore dropped everything, left for La Serena with plans to head to Northern Chile and Peru as fast as I could hop on a bus.

Let me tell you something, if you can avoid arriving in a city in the morning (5 oclock in this case) definetly avoid it. Another note, busdrivers know which will be worse, arriving too early or too late, and will always try to accomodate you. In this case we were meant to arrive at 6, but there we were, groggy as hell at 5 in the morn. Despite this, I made my way to Valle del Elqui and the little town of Pisco Elqui. It turned out to be the right stop as it was a beautiful little valley of grape farms and distilleries. I rented a bike and rode for a while, (until my bike broke I think I am far too big to ever rent a bike as I always manage to break rentals, see Ecuador) I then toured a Pisco distillery and drank some of the good stuffa, followed by a wonderful hamburger and drinks in the bike rental guys bar.

The following day I managed to escape the valley on the first bus of the day at 12:30 and made my way to La Serena to buy a ticket for Arica, site of a surf contest with the top 40 surfers in the world! And thats where I am now. A great little town in the middle of the desert, with a world class surf break, and great rotisserie chicken, (a whole chicken for less that 5 bucks). Tomorrow I will continue my gawking at the surfers and then head to Tacna, Peru where I will catch a bus to Cuzco for the Winter Solstice festival on the 24th, and my reunion with Grock on the 25th.

Chile, Estados Unidos of the South

Sorry for the long delay I have just been living in LA-LA land for the last few weeks. After arriving in Santiago de Chile on the 4th of June I changed my money in for thousands of Pesos thinking I was in for a good time. A few seconds later i spent all that I had to catch a bus to the house of Andreas, Vicki, Felix and Max Vorwerk, my family in Chile! Initially it was great to be out of Hostels so for the first day I just hung out and rested under what I thought were cloudy skies but later found out was a substance familiar to my heart, smog. I helped Max, my second cousin (our grandparents were brother and sister), take these three great dogs for a walk in the hills above Santiago, ang the next day went to school with Max. Basically I was one of the family. The next day I went to the center of Santiago and visited an amazing pre-columbian art museum, where I thought of my sister who did her thesis on that type of art. That night I went out with some of Max´s friends to a bar and to a disco, the whole time I was trying to size up the differences in the way i was seeing the city compared to my normal methods of hanging in a hostel near the center of the city.

Later on I was invited surfing with some of Max´s friends, Pancho and his friend. I was told by Pancho to be ready at 4, but being pretty smart I called him at 4 to find out that he wouldnt be there until later, lucky me. The drive was beautiful, especially as the sun began to rise over un-smoggy hills. When we arrived at the beach and I eventually found my way into the water I realized that my rented wetsuit was completely inadequete. Wow was it cold. I caught a few waves before I completely lost feeling in my feet and hands. However before we got in Pancho told me I had to stay in for a while so as not to be a mariposon, like a wimp but a more negative conotation of being a butterfly as well (god only knows why that is so terrible). Therefore, when I finally got out I experienced some of the worst pain of my life as my feet were completely numb to my high ankles and it was pretty difficult to walk. I only regained feeling in all 20 toes after about an hour and a half. Anyway, it was really fun to be out of Santiago. The next day we had a great lunch with the family in which Max and Felix cooked, and then I left for Pucon on a night bus to visit the cousin and aunt of Cecelia.

Before I leave Santiago let me tell you a few things. It is big, and by big I mean Los Angeles big. Starting that comparison, let me just finish it. LA, terrible public transportation, Santiago, a new bus system called transantiago which is the subject of complaints on EVERY single episode of the nightly news the whole time Ive been in Chile, and which takes an hour to reach any where in the city. LA, smog, ditto Santiago. LA, miserably selfish people obsessed with money. Well this is difficult bc of my limited experience, but yea most people I met, obviously not my family or any of there friends, were very closed off and inacessible, and yes selfish. Example? Anytime, anywhere, if you are standing or sitting in someones way and they wish to get around you, they will not ask if you can move, or tap you lightly, they will just sort of push you. I think this is a manifestation of selfishness, but I could be wrong. Despite these obvious flaws, my family and their friends were some of the most warm and welcoming people I have ever met, and welcomed me into their lives as though I had always been there. Including speaking German at a birthday dinner for Andreas in which I was the only one of about 13 people who didnt know what the heck was going on. And in the middle Vicki asks me if I understand anything in spanish and I answered in English, ¨no, Im confused¨ to the uproirous laughter of everybody at the table. I really was confused. I had been speaking spanish with Sergio, (cecelias cousin) and then read an entire book in English on the way home, and then spent a whole night trying to speak German, I couldnt speak properly in any language for days!

So as you may have figured I spent more time in Santiago after Pucon. When I got back to Santiago they had just recieved over 2 meters of snow and I was able to go on the first day of the season to Valle Nevado, a mountain just over 12,000 feet which is only 40 minutes from Santiago. The first day was great, well scratch that, the snow was great but the visibility was about as bad as it can be. I tried to snowboard but continually almost injured myself falling off small cliffs which were completely invisible to me. I got a few great runs in knee deep powder and vowed to return. And return I did, the next day. I went with Felix and his friend Sven and Svens girlfriend who happened to have a cabin directly on the slopes. Wow, I couldnt imagine two more different days. The first day I took a miserable bus to the slopes which took forever and cost a fortune, the second day rode up in style in Svens Range Rover. The first day I couldnt see an thing, the second day the sun was shining and I could almost see the ocean. It was incredible! Felix and I did so many runs, I was in the powder and he was on the groomed runs initially, but I convinced him to do some crazy stuff with me. We did a chute between two rocks and got fresh tracks on a black diamond that was closed off, it was sweet. I had one of the best days ever bc I wasnt with the powder hounds of California and was able to get fresh tracks from bottom to top, which never ever happens in Cali. Anyway, I finished off my Santiago experience the right way and took off to La Serena in the north, where I am writing now before getting on a bus to Arica which will cover about 1,500 km and 19 hours!

Pictures of Chile

These are the most recent pictures I have taken! Starting with Aconcagua 22,841 the highest peak in the western Hemisphere out of the airplane to Santiago. Next is my cousin Max and I at his University. The next pic is the Moneda palace which was raided by Pinochet during the (very bloody) coup in 1973, followed by pictures from a surf trip to the coast today. In the one with the surfer you can also see Aconcagua which is clear across Chile, neat!

Colonia, and goodbye to Beautiful Uruguay

Arriving in Colonia, a little (you guessed it) colonial village on the coast I went looking for something to eat. I found this cool little restaurant called the Drugstore in the center of little cobblestone streets and right next to the central square. I was enticed to go in by Luisa, the manager of the place. She spoke impeccable English and after convincing me that I wanted to eat there told me about her amazing life working with a fake social security number in New York, and as a chef in Porugal. She appeared to be about 35, but that may have been 35 years old like my dad is 35... I also met Maia, this beautiful waitress with whom I immediately fell in love. But as I was leaving the next day, I merely promised to return someday...

The next day I woke up, took a ferry to Buenos Aires, again with the Austrians, and ate lunch in San Telmo. Lunch was my last Argentinian Steak and boy was it good. Covered with Roquefert cheese and bloody as hell, all for 5 dollars!

I made my way to the airport after buying more Yierba Mate (it has become quite the addiction) and on to Santiago de Chile!

Montevideo, Capital of my heart

After the initial rough around the edges appearence, I really had a great time. Montevideo is so laid back I could have been in San Fran, Ca. Every street has London Plain trees which give it this great feel, and it definetly was the safest city Id been in a while. I just walked around with the swiss girl the first day while alternately bargaining for a new mate and bombilla, and looking in museums (all free). Every person I met was so friendly, and the girls, wow. I think the girls in Uruguay are the most beautiful. Well, the Argintinas are nice as well, but they all seem so full of themselves that I feel like Im back in LA. The Uruguayenas on the other hand are very innocent and just drop dead gorgeous.

While in Brazil my budget sort of flew out the window, so I decided to get back on track here in Uruguay. The first night I made some great lentils in the kitchen, and a sandwich for lunch the next day. The 200 grams of cheese, 200 gs salami, giant loaf of bread, 6 eggs, 200 gs lentils, 2 onions, head of garlic, tomato, and 2 carrots all together cost...4$! I was stoked, food for two days for almost nothing, I love this place. The next day we walked to the beach and watched kite surfers for a while. When we walked over to say hi to them one of the guys invited us to their house for a party on saturday night. Then we went to a farmers market\garage sale and got some amazing grapes and arrugula, and a CD of Puro Rock from Uruguay.

That night I started drinking beer at about 1 am and went to some clubs with the Brazillian guys. It was great fun, dancing and drinking and all that, and no smoking inside, what a progressive country! The best and worst thing were the girls. They were all so beautiful, but completely unaccessible. I wasnt looking for a girlfriend but just someone to dance with a little. That proved to be impossible as the guys are so aggressive, that girls are afraid to even talk to you.

Anyway, made it home at around 6:30 and slept most of Sat in anticipation of a great night on Sat. This night was different. It started with going over to another Brazillians house, a guy who had stayed at the hostel for a few months but later moved to an apt in the center of town. He was actually on his way to Michigan, Ann Arbor to work on his PhD in Sociology This proved very usefull as the brazillians and I started on a night long discourse on social inequities and the problems of raising children in this day and age in the United States and Brazil, and why people were so different in Uruguay. We also foreyed into Politics, with the main question being, how in the hell did Bush win a second time??? The discusion tailed off at around the 9th liter of beer at which point we left for Almodobar, one of the big clubs. The night reminded me of Spain, with tons of people in the streets and lots of little clubs along two main streets. We had a great time dancing and being rejected by girls, when finally at around 8 in the morning we went to, god forbid, McDonalds and continued our analysis of the United States, with the conclusion that if people have everything, as in the States, they will be as (or more) unhappy as people who have nothing.

After a long sleep I left to Colonia to sleep and ponder the questions of the Universe, or at least this planet.

Goodbye to Brazil, Gremio, Inter and hello again to Brazillians

A few days ago I left Canela with a heavy heart, after thoroughly enjoying myself, making new friends and partying in the clubs I said goodbye to Vagner and the amazing 5.50 cent buffet libre in which he worked. After extensive planning, making phone calls to Porto Allegre in portugese is not the easiest thing to do in the world, I hopped on a bus for Porto Allegre and an 8:30 overnighter to Montevideo, Uruguay. I didnt realize that Gremio, one of Porto Allegre's futball teams was in the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores and was playing in Porto Allegre that night! Of course we drove right by the stadium along with 60,000 screaming honking fans, (I think they won), and I hopped on the bus mere seconds before it left for Uruguay.

A little about Porto Allegre Futball. Inter, the other PA team last year won the Copa Libertadores, championship of South America, and then finished by beating Barcelona, the champion of europe. They are therefore known as the campeons del mundo. This year it looks like Gremio is going to win, didnt I say that PA is the futball capital of the world?

Anyway, back to bus reality. When I first got on I met all the other travellers, one of whom was a catholic priest from Ecuador, and two others were travellers from Austria. I could never tell if they were boyfriend girlfriend, or father and Daughter, but I ended up seeing them several more times, finishing with lunch in BA. The bus was nice, big seats lots of room, but the road made up for that, nice and bumpy. We made it through customs at about 3 in the morn, thank you german passport! And got to Montevideo at 8 in the morning. I beelined it for a hostel and slept for a few hours before breakfast.

A little about hostels. Each hostel has its own personality and therefore its own charms and problems. The charms include breakfast, free internet, the problems horrible beds, loud roomates and absolutely horrible bathrooms. At first it seemed this one suffered the problems with no redeeming factors, my room was occupied by a smoking man, possibly from Saudi Arabia (I was told), the bathrooms were wet all over, with no hot water and no toilet paper, and the bed, wow, the mattress stunk and was about as effective as a single sheet over a wooden plank. Despite these problems it soon became my favorite hostel!

I moved rooms, put two mattress on top of each other and learned to use the bathroom before the guys from Bangledesh did, (they were the source of the water apparently). I met a nice girl from Switzerland who only spoke spanish with me, and 3 great Brazillians who were studying Architecture in Montevideo, and they had a fireplace in the hostel which kept things nice and toasty.