Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas all!
It´s Boxing day over here, and we´re all taking it very easy after a big day of eating, drinking, swimming, and general merriment. But I´m getting a bit ahead of myself.
A couple days back we went on this big day trip out into the desert. We saw Seven Colour Hill, climbed to an altitude of 4100 metres, ate traditional Argentinian food at a self sustained farm in the middle of nowhere, visited the Salta salt flats, and visited an Inca ruin. It was a very nice day, but damn tiring.
The following day was Christmas eve, we took it relatively easy and did a bit of Christmas shopping, during which Ness tried to speak to someone politely in Spanish, and clearly getting it very wrong, she aroused a very angry rant from a local store owner, that I am sure consisted of the worst Spanish swear words imaginable. It was pretty funny.
I then tried to ring Brit and my family for Christmas, however the instructions on my phone card was in Spanish, the phone lines were jammed most of the time due to everyone having the same idea as I, and due to a storm the phone kept cutting out. After 2 hours I got to speak to my sister and Brit for about 20 minutes. Mum and Dad had gone out.
That night we went to a Christmas party at a hostel, 30 pesos for all you could eat and drink. We were only going to have a small night because we intended to have a big day on Christmas, but somewhere along the way it went horribly wrong, and it turned into a big night. Over here Christmas is kind of celebrated like New Years, with the party on Christmas eve, and a count down to Christmas followed by all the locals shooting off massive fire works. It was quite incredible, I have never seen so many fireworks filling the sky in all directions.
At 5am I decided I would try to call my parents again, seeing as it would be 7pm in Australia. I managed to get through relatively quickly, and it was nice to speak to them, but truth be told I can´t remember much of that conversation.
I finally crashed out at the hostel, and it was only a couple hours later that we had to get up and check out. I felt ordinary, but Sarah looked like death, and contiued to look quite ill for most of the day. From the hostel we set out for a house some friends we had met in Bariloche hired out for Christmas.
It´s a great house, a pool, a big backyard, and most importantly plenty af great people, 15 of us all up. When we got there we were told of a massive feast we were to enjoy later that day. It all sounded quite ambitious, so I was skeptical as to how it would turn out. When we offered to help out, these two Irish boys stepped forward and proclaimed, you can all help by not setting a single foot in the kitchen until dinner is served. And for the remainder of the day we were all locked out of the kitchen, some people attempted to enter but were yelled at immediatley. At about 6pm, with none of us having eaten all day, the boys opened up the kitchen and what lay in front of us was the most enormous feast I have ever seen. Two turkeys, roast beef, stuffing, gravy, roast veg, roast potatoes, scalloped potatoes, mash potatoes, fries, corn, wine, beer, Irish coffee... The boys had even had Brussel Sprouts Fedexed to them from Ireland. They went the whole hog. Dessert followed with more Irish coffee, 2 apple pies, and a crazy ice cream cake.
I had never invisiaged that it could be so good, a few days prior we thought we´d be eating hotdogs on a street corner somewhere, and although not a family Christmas spectacular, this exceeded all expectations. By 4am we passed out on the floor, as the house didn´t have enough beds, but what followed was one of the best sleeps I have had in weeks. And this morning we got up sometime after midday feeling well rested.
Tonight we leave Argentina and head to Bolivia. Tupiza being our next stop. It´s been a fun country, and we will miss our American friends, Adam and Noah, who we may not catch up with again, however we may see Natalie and Tracy for New Years, so that will be good.
Argentina was a good way to start the trip I think because it is quite similar to Australia in many ways, and we didn´t really experience any culture shock. Bolivia however, shall be an entirely different propostion, and I look forward to the challenges it will hold.
Till next time,
Dylan
P.S. Christmas photos are coming and maybe even a video, but it may be some days until I can get them posted.

Iguazu to Salta

First thing´s first. Booze is REALLY cheap here, and only gets cheaper in Bolivia. On our last night in Iguazu we bought a litre of vodka for 5 pesos, which is about $2.50 Aus. It smelt and tasted like Methylated Spirits, but we had a good night. By coincidence we ran into Dean, who we met in Bariloche, and this made the night even better. We had a 9am bus out of Iguazu the following day, and needless to say we weren´t feeling the flashest. We transfered onto another bus in Tucuman, and by coincidence jumped on the same bus as some American guys we met briefly on another bus. We got talking and it turns out they were friends with two other girls we had met in Bariloche and were meeting them for Christmas in Salta. The coincidences just keep on piling up. So these guys invite us to this Christmas party they´re having at this house that they are renting for three days over Christmas with a pool and everything, telling us about the huge dinner they´re going to prepare, and we agree whole heartedly. It turned out that they were coming to the same hostel as we were first so we shared a taxi and checked in. Then I get an email from the girls we know inviting us to the same party. It really is a small world. Anyway we´re pretty psyched about Christmas, we´ve got a makeshift travel family, and with the big dinner and the pool, it should be really fun.
Salta is a really beautiful city. Yesterday we took an airbus up a mountain, and despite desert only being a few kms away the whole place is greener than any city I have seen. It´s nice kicking back in one town for a few days. Buses are beginning to feel very ordinary.
However, despite this being a really nice city, and being in a really nice hostel, there are some wankers about. Last night we were cooking dinner and this drunkard kept on leaning over our food, pushing Sarah aside and taking over. Who does that? He started adding all this olive oil in it, we were making Chili con Carne, you don´t really need olive oil! I literally had to push him aside and forcefully reject his offers to help, which were not so much offers as much as they were demands as he reached over to take the pan. I was fuming and ready to throw the pot half full of boiling olive oil at the bastard, but luckily he wandered off and passed out in the hall way. How rude can you get. You just don´t touch a strangers cooking, you could get shot for that kind of thing in some cultures... well my culture, whatever that may be! For the rest of the evening I had to contend with this loser pleading with me to pick up a girl for him. It didn´t seem to occur to him that me picking a girl up would not help him in the slightest. He also didn´t care when I told him I had a girlfriend and wouldn´t feel comfortable doing it. I downright refused, and he continues to give me daggers when I walk by him in the hall ways. Jerk.
Despite these set backs, I´m having a great time. The pool table is free here, the beer is cheap, and the weather is warm. The girls have gone nuts for a cocktail that you drink out of a pineapple, however they haven´t yet mastered the art of not butchering the pineapple beyond its use as a beverage container. Still they´re having fun. I´m enjoying my last opportunity for big cheap steaks. Bolivia ain´t much of a steak country.
Tomorrow we´re heading out for a 15 hour day trip. We´re getting to some high altitudes, so that´ll be interesting. I´ll let you know how that goes soon.
Till then,
Dil pickleton.

Iguazu Day 2

Well it´s been another big and spectacular day. We got up early and caught the bus to Iguazu national park to see the falls. Again it was damn hot and humid, we all agreed that we had never sweated so much in all our lives, it was just lovely. The national park has several walks that take you to different views of the falls. Each was spectacular in its own way, and between today and yesterday we manged to do them all. The park itself is crawling with wildlife. Amazing birds, the most colourful butterflies you have ever seen, thousands of lizards including plenty of iguanas, these small wild guinea pigs, huge bugs-ants as big as your thumb, we were also lucky enough to see a family of Matis ( at least I think that´s what they´re called... I could be very wrong), they were mammals about the size of monkeys with stripy tails, and long thin noses, they came to within a foot of us. It was pretty cool. So it was a pretty amazing day. Half-way through it however, it just started pouring with rain, I mean the heaviest rain I have ever experienced. One moment it was really hot, then BAM- pouring with rain. In Iguazu it seems you´re either swimming in sweat or swimming in rain. There was no shelter anywhere, so we had no option but to grin and bear it. After you´re soaked through there´s not much you can do but enjoy the rain. I was a little worried about my camera and i-pod, but luckily they are fine. Most everything else in my bag had to be ditched though, and all my money got very wet, which is a problem when it´s made of paper. I handed the bus driver a hanful of soggy notes, he accepted them, but was none to pleased about it. When we got back to the hostel, I used Sarah´s hairdryer to dry out all my money(which I would have paid her out about bringing if I knew she had it earlier, but seeing as I needed it, it turned out to be a great thing to take abroad). It was a relief to have a hot shower and put on some dry clothes. Right now the girls are out buying ingrediants for dinner, we´re gonna make pizza, which is exciting cos although there is plenty of Pizza here it has all been surprisingly ordinary. We´re gonna make it right tonight!
Tomorrow we jump back on another long bus trip to head to Salta, where we´ll be spending Christmas. It will be good to spend a while in a town and just relax.
Until Salta,
Dylan

Mendoza to Iguazu: One Big ass bus trip!

Many a thing has happened since the last blog.
Whilst still in Mendoza I decided to scour around for a new book to read, which is a harder task than you would think cos of the whole language thing. We asked around and finally were directed to some kind of second hand book store district. It was bizzare, there were all these book hustlers on the street corners, whispering sleazily in your ear,
``hey guerro, you lookin for a book, you come to my bookstore, you get some good books there!``
then some other guy would come up to you, and be all like
``don`t listen to him, his books are bad, you come buy my books``
Then some kind of book turf war would start, and much blood would be shed. Well not quite, but it did feel like they were pedling drugs or hookers or something, when honestly the shops were like ma and pa secondhand bookstores. Crazy!
I finally found a book, and we headed to the bus station. It was here that we had our first run in with dirty dirty theives. We were sitting with our packs near our feet, my day pack was about two feet away from me. And then some guy came up to us and was like,
``Hey, you guys, you know....(followed by incomprehensible english).``
We all looked up at him, but as I did I saw in the corner of my eye someone picking up my day pack. I turned to him quick as a flash, catching him in the act. I wasn`t quite sure what was happening at first, but he dropped the bag immediately, and tried to confuse me by offering me his half eaten lollies. It worked, I took his crappy lollies, and he was gone before I had truly realised what had happened. It was a close call, but a good way to learn, our day packs stay in our laps in bus stations, and locked up otherwise.
We waited a long while for our bus, almost too long, before we checked with a lady and found our bus had been docked at a different platform to the one we had originally been directed. We ran to the otherside of the bus station and got there just in time. Sat down and got as comfortable as we could for the epic journey ahead of us. The trip wasn`t too bad. The food was passable and I knocked off half of my book. But when we finally got off we found that Sarah`s bag had been sitting in some foul smelling liquid for 36 hours and soaked theough all her clothes, rendering them smelly. She`s washing them now, but not altogether happily.
Iguazu is hot. And damn humid. Walking around here is like swimming in sweat, it`s not too pleasant. However, battling on we headed to the falls, and they are breathtaking. So far on this trip I have seen so many sights that are so amazing they are practically indescribable, but looking at these huge falls is kind of like being drunk. The constant changing formations of the masses of falling water makes you dizzy, and gives you a bit of a head ache. It is truly mindblowing. We are heading back there tomorrow cos there is so much to see, the falls are so huge you can`t see them all in one day.
Our hostel is alright, it looks really cool cos it used to be a casino, we`re about to go swim in this huge pool out the front. However, everything in Iguazu is sooooooooo expensive, it`s a tourist town and boy do they know it. It`s worth it though, I never thought I`d be so impressed with a waterfall, but I have been proven wrong, and not for the first time... nor the last I fear.

Till next time,

Chuckles

Leaving Mendoza

After a big sleep last night we set out to stroll around the city of Mendoza, saw some nice parks, ate some decent enough food, and now we are preparing for the 36 hour trip to Iguazu that lies ahead. To tell you the truth there´s not a whole lot to report, but I have taken this opportunity to download a bunch of photos, the first lot are from Sarah´s camera, the second lot are from my camera and are shots of Mendoza. I have also added some more pictures from Bariloche in previous blogs.

See yáll,

Dylan

Mendoza

Another crappy bus ride later and we´re in Mendoza. This time our bus broke down twice, they only played one crappy film for the entire 20 hour trip (the Italian Job), and we were not fed because they were too busy grinding the hell out of the gears. So spirits weren´t exactly high when we finally arrived. We also decided to walk from the bus station to our hostel, which took us more than an hour, and to top things off our hostel is a hole. The first thing we wanted to do was shower, and we all got to do this, but Ness and Sarah did so wading in a bout three inches of other peoples shower filth due to clogged drains. It is also the first time we have been put in single sex dorms. I have the pleasure of sharing my room with a silent mustached man, and Old Man Doom. Old Man Doom is nice enough, but about 50 years old, when he asked me where we were going and I replied amongst other places Peru. He responded with. Oh that´s a very dangerous place. And I said oh, have you been there. Turns out he hadn´t, but he did tell me a bunch of horror stories, and continues to look at me as if my days are numbered. This morning I woke up to him telling me that someone had been mugged in a park nearby, so we had better be careful. I asked him how it had happened and he told me that a drunken tourist was staggering throught the park at midnight, and then he got mugged. I told him that a staggering drunken tourist could be mugged in any park at midnight. And he proceeded to look at me as if my days were even lesser numbered.
After breakfast we jumped on a bus and headed to the wineries. We hired bikes and rode to 3 wineries, a wine museum, and a place that made amazing chocolate liquers. We tried beverages at all of these places, which combined with the extreme heat of the day made riding the bikes progressively harder. By 5pm we were exhausted, and headed back to the hostel. We just went to the supermarket to get our dinner organised and opted for our first vegetarian meal. It was so cheap the girls suggested never buying meat again. I don´t know if they were joking, but I let them know it wasn´t very funny regardless.
We´re heading off to Iguazu falls tomorrow and shall be spending Christmas in Salta. The Iguazu trip is 36 hours on a bus, I just hope it´s not as tedious as the last trip... That may not be a realistic thing to hope for, but I´ve still got a shred of optimism in me.

Catch yáll!
Chuckles

Leaving Bariloche

Just a quickie toady. We´re heading out of Bariloche in a couple of hours to set out for Mendoza, Argetina´s wine region. I´m looking forward to it, but in honesty it´s a little sad saying goodbye to our new friends. Dean the gay pom was one of the funniest guys I have met on these travels. The Americans, Jarrod, Natalie, and Tracy, were really cool to hang out with. Who´d have thought that Yanks could be so bearable? We´re all headed in roughly the same direction so we may be able to meet up for New Years. Some funny things to mention that happened during our stay at Hostel 41 Below were as follows. Two morons paid 100 pesos for about one cent´s worth of mate (argentine tea) being told it was pot. They almost smoked all of it before someone else told them they weren´t smoking pot, we heard them coughing and spluturing upstairs, they complained of headaches for the next day. It was pretty funny, you´d have to be stupid to try and buy drugs over here, so they got what they deserved. Ness confidently shouted out bottom when we were listing words that could be spelt the same way backwards and forwards, moments later she thought it was raining in one spot that was actually a sprinkler. I asked a guy to turn a light on, he was Israeli and clearly misinterpretted what I said and proceeded to tell me all about who he hooked up with the night before, then he left, leaving me in the dark. A Canadian was intrigued when I told him that 70 % of all statistics were made up. He wanted to know where he could find that statistic, it took me another 5 minutes to explain that it was a joke.

Anywho I best be off. Photos are on their way soon, it just takes so long to upload them. Here´s a taste anyway.

Chucklebear.