Oh ya, im supposed to do this

Actually i´ve just been lazy, but everyone probably knew that.  Well its been a long time, so i´m just going to talk about recent stuff and maybe a quick rundown of everything else.
Right now I´m in Mendoza just for one night and tomorrow we go to Santiago, Chile. So since my last post I think we spent some time in Mendoza, Uspallata, Bariloche, and back to Mendoza.  All of this was amazing in its own way, but I don´t feel like writing very long so i´m going to talk about Bariloche...I think going in reverse order, so starting with yesterday and ending (if I make it that far) with the start in Bariloche.
Bariloche is a beautiful ski town/city in the southern part of Argentina situated in the patagonia lakes district.  It is surrounded the Andes and massive lakes filled with the cold water of the Ande´s snow melt.  One of the best parts of the town was the chocolate.  In the main downtown street, which is probably around 5-7 blocks, there is literally more chocolate shops than in all of eugene, with amazing chocolate...needless to say I spent more money than i should have.  Another great part of the chocolate shops, was how friendly they were, so we could (and did) go from shop to shop getting lots of samples while acting like we were going to buy something.
The first full day in Bariloche we went to a breathtaking lookout.

The lookout was supposed to be a twenty minute bus ride from town, but today was one of those days where logan was at his absolute best.  When we were getting directions in the morning the guy clearly told us to get off the bus after the 17km mark.  So when we got on the bus and logan had the window seat and I couldn´t see the road I naturally put in him in charge of watching the km signs and figuring out when we were supposed to get off the bus.  After a while on the bus Logan said it was time to get off the bus and me being a trusting friend didn´t bother double checking his judgement.  We got off the bus and to my wonderful suprise there was nothing that looked liked a lookout, just a normal mountain road a long ways from town.  At first I was confused because I was sure we had followed the directions, that is until I saw the sign that said km 14!  Somehow logan had heard 17 and over time changed that in his mind to 14. I´m slowly starting to realize Logan can´t be trusted with directions, because this isn´t the first time where he´s gotten directions and then acted on them without double checking, confident in his memory and sense of direction, and we´ve ended up at the wrong place or going the wrong direction.  After a nice walk up the mountain rode we got to the base of the lookout where logan quickly realized that he had forgotten his water...let the mooching begin.  However, after hiking the rest of the way to the lookout it was amazing.  A 360 view of the andes and gigantic lakes.
Oh, and continuing with the theme of Logan for the day.  He was later called stingy (putting it nicely) by a guy from Malta because Logan refused to share his chocolate with him after he had previously shared food with logan.  Then, apparently Logan has a little problem with lactose, because after eating his chocolate he quickly preceded to heavily pollute the air in the dining room and then ran upstairs and went to bed.  

Moving on. The 2nd day in Bariloche.  We were recommended to go on a hike to a place called Frey. Without a doubt the most beautiful hike I have ever been on, absolutely amazing.  The weather was also amazing, a perfect spring day and all that was needed was shorts and t-shirts. We were told it was a 4 hour hike that you could do faster without much effort.  However, the hike turned out to be 4 hours in and 4 hours out.  It was a long day, but without a doubt worth it.

After this the weather turned sour.  Spent the next couple of days hanging around town and the hostel.  The hostel was great and had an amazing collection of friendly people.  The night after our hike pretty much the rest of the hostel went out to the bars and didn´t start filtering in until 5-7 in the morning, our roomate literally went to bed 30 minutes before logan got out of bed.  It was funny because the next morning they were all hung over and it was the Argentina national census so literally everything was closed and they couldn´t get food anywhere.  Finally after a few hours they got enough energy to walk around and I think after a while they had to go to a hotel to get food.

Last exciting thing was I got to navigate a Argentinian hospital.  We are going to Bolivia so I needed a yellow fever vaccine, which is only given at the hospital once a week.  So I went there and with some very broken spanish and charades was able to succesfully get my shot.  The best part...vaccines in Argentina are free

Well thats all for now, i´m tired of writing.

Busy, busy week

I finally got to sleep in a real bed last night, and it was amazing.  These week has been hectic as we´ve been trying to do a lot of stuff in a small amount of time.  Since monday night I´ve spent 50+ hours on a bus, 3 nights sleeping on buses, and one night sleeping in a crowded tent.  While the traveling part was terrible we were able to see one of God´s amazing, powerful, and breathtaking creations in Iguazu falls.

So since it´s been a little while since I last wrote, a little backtracking first.  Before all our wonderful time on the buses, the last major thing we did in Buenos Aires was go to the San Telmo fair.  This is a masive street fair/saturday market that takes place on Sundays, and is filled with antiques (argentinians apparently really like their antiques), tango dancers, street performers, food, and of course random vendors of all types.  The most impressive aspect about it was the size of the fair.  It makes Saturday Market look like a highschool craft fair.  The fair closes down entire streets and goes on for blocks.  Where we were staying is right next to the main part/beginning of the fair, by the time we walked through the entire fair we were so far away that we had to take the subway to get back to where we were staying.

Above are some of the pictures from the street fair,  The first one is a random street performer, the colorful one is just some random street art/graffiti, and the other two are of the fair.

I ran out of time, only one computer at this hostel, so I´ll upload some pictures of the falls next time.

Being a tourist, caminito, Reserva Ecológica

Today and yesterday were a little more chill and relaxing days with a little sightseeing followed by hanging out at the hostel and chilling.
Yesterday (thursday I think) we went to caminito.  This is a famous painted street in a rougher area.  Kinda just a big tourist trap.  There were the painted houses which were nice and tango dancers and food.  It also had a lot of people looking for tourists and trying to sell them stuff and being kind of obnoxious, for some reason they always went to logan and not me...they can recognize a pushover when they see one.    Overall not as exciting as i had hoped but still neat.
After this we tried to take the bus back to the hostel, with the bus being just as packed as the subways except with no signs on where to get off.  We managed to somehow get off the bus somewhat near our hostel though, but as we were trying to find our way back it started just pouring rain.  By the time we found the hostel we were soaking wet.  The rest of the day was spent inside at the hostel, until dinner.

Dinner was amazing.  We went to el desnivel, and had some of the best steaks ever.  I ended up with a grilled tenderloin with mushroom sauce and potatoes for 52 pesos (roughly $13), and then washed it down with a half bottle of the house wine for 12 pesos.  I normally am not oe to buy a half bottle of wine for myself, but I wasn´t paying attention to the menu and thought it was a half glass.

Today we went to the ecological reserve with our friend Gill.  It was like a giant wetland right outside of the city.  I think it is roughly 4.5 miles around and filled with multiple trails where the locals go running...it would give Pre´s trail a good run for its money.   On our way back we stopped on the street that borders the reserve and got some food.  I ordered a hamburger for 7 pesos ($1.75) and at first was fairly disappointed when I saw it.  However, after putting on all the various condiments, many of which I hadn´t seen before, it turned into one of the best burgers I´ve had in a long time...I probably could have had two more.

Welp, don´t know what else to say...

Downtown buenos aires

Hmm...I should really start writing these sooner.  I keep waiting a day or two and what I wanted to write about gets fuzzy.  Yesterday (wednesday) was a fun day, again.  Woke up around ten thirty which seems to be about the normal time everyone else gets up at the hostel.  Logan and I and are friend Gill, who is from Isreal, went downtown to a place charollete researched for us.  We went thinking we would find a local central market with tango dancers and small unique shops...unfortunately, it turned out to be a really big mall no different from one in portland except that you couldn´t understand people.  Kind of disappointing.  Downtown and the walk was great though, it was just non stop clothing store after clothing store all over the place.  its absolutely amazing, i´ve never seen so many stores.  We´ve been in three different downtown sections and they are all filled with malls and shops, but somehow all different...I´m sure this is what Kate Chausee and Sarah Lilly imagine heaven to be like.

After the shopping mall we decided to go to Florida Street., which is a long, pedestrain only, shopping street.  I loved it.  There was again hundreds and hundreds of clothing stores, coffee shops, etc., but it was everything else that made it so great.  The street is jammed packed with people, street performers, and beautiful buildings.  Watching the performers and all the different people was great, and watching the people interacting with the aggresive traffic  of intersecting streets was at times even more entertaining as at times a couple would come within inches of being hit by a speeding taxi. 

At night at the hostel it was tango night, where a instructor came in and gave free lessons.  About 8 of us did it while everyone else sat around watching and laughing.  I was suprised Logan didn´t do it, but he said its not the same without charolette (how sweet).  I had a lot of fun though, it was a new experience, one I wasn´t particulary great at but wasn´t the worst either.
Well thats all for yesterday.  Bought an adapter for my camera, will upload pictures soon.

sorry if spelling isn´t great or lack of spaces, i blame the keyboard.

Full day in Buenos Aires

Well, I´ve missed a couple of days due largely to laziness and to a lack of sleep from staying up late, getting up early for the plane, and then not sleeping much while flying.  I think I had two and half hours of sleep before the flight and then another 3-5 during the course of the flights, for a grand total of around 6 for two days...It was rough.
Today we traveled around buenos aires, in shorts and t-shirts weather.  To get where we were going we mostly rode the subway, which i thought was a lot of fun.  It seems like a major way of transport for the city and was so crowded at times that literally one more person couldn´t get on.  The coolest thing I though was the cementery called cementario recelota (I think).  It was amazing and huge.  All the graves were crypts, massive statues, or a combination of the two; we probably wondered around in there for about an hour and only saw a little over half of the cementery.  I wish I could show you the pictures but i found out that the one thing i forget was the usb connector for my camera, i´ll have to buy one i guess.
Buenos Aires is absolutely beautiful though.  The city is filled with parks, massive statues everywhere, beautiful gardens, and wonderful buildings.  We´re staying in the San Telmo district which seems like an older districts with small streets, cobbled walkways that are falling apart in places, and just more beautiful buildings, while its old its still nice.  Downtown was much more like American cities modern and busy, but with parks mixed in.  I think at some points the roads downtown were 10 lanes wide, going one way.
The hostel is also nice.  Very friendly peoople from a mix of countries and cultures.   Everyone gets along and is finds a way to communicate. I wish I knew more languages, everyone else seems to know at least two.
Well its been a long day, time for bed.

Almost there...

Well, here it is.
As most people know I'm the best writer, but I'm going to try.  So here's the blog.  Hopefully I'll be able to update it every couple of days with whats going on, some pictures, and what not. 
Two days until I leave, trying to get everything figured out.  Right now my stuff is scattered around the house in semi-organized piles, with a lot on the kitchen table much to the delight of my parents.  Hopefully I'll get it all cleaned up, packed, and put away before everyone comes over to night.  I just realized I better get on that because you never know when someone might show up.  So, till next time...