TravelStream™ news feed for member chuckonearth on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/chuckonearth en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:07:46 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1207173960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1207173960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1207173960/tpod.html Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:07:46 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Alausi, Ecuador

 We grabbed the damn 4pm bus yesterday to get to Riobamba by last nightso that we could take the train from here down this valley early thismorning (it only runs certain days of the week).  Turns out all therain (its rainy season) has washed out the tracks on the upper parts(or so they say), so mom and I had to grab a bus to the town (a twohour ride which could have been done on the train) right before wherethe train drops down into the famous valley.  The train used to runfrom Guayaquil (on the coast) to Quito, which for the time it wasconstructed was quite an engineering feat since it had to do a largeelevation climb.  But the whole route is nolonger in service and they only run a certain famous portion (that doesthese switchbacks dropping it further into the valley) for tourism.  Myparents had actually taken the entire train trip between Guayaquila andQuito when they were down here about 30 years ago, so it was kind ofcool for my mom to come and check it out again.Turns out to be a bit of a tourist trap since its costly for what youget.  Either way, the train was old and it was pretty cool to see howthey did the whole thing.  Plus you can ride on the roof.  Roof ridingsounded sweet, but its not nearly as cool as it sounds.  You get toride on the roof, but it was designed to put hold bags up there, so ithas guard rails and is pretty adapatable to people, so its nothingrustic or adventurous.  Pretty much everyone wants to ride on the rooftoo.  Also the train is literally a one-train-car job.  Now I am sureit was probably a bit of a bigger train back in the day, but it wasliterally a single cabin car which was also has the engine (made byMercedes-Benz none the less, old school style).So we hop into this train and ride down the valley.  Since everyonewants to ride on the roof, there are two shifts, one down and one up. I opted to ride on top on the way up.  Mom chickened out.  Like I saidthe whole thing was pretty anti-climatic, the coolest thing being thatthis old-school, diesel-run, Mercedez train is actually still working. They stop at different points so that people can take pictures out thewindows and check out the scenery.  When you get to the bottom of thevalley (takes about 30min if I remember correctly) everyone gets out totake pictures and revel in the fact that they just dropped a lot ofelevation (can't remember what it was).  Then we swap and go back up,doing the same thing in reverse.  The whole thing would have been a lotcooler if we were able to take the train all the way from Riobamba.  Iwould recommend it if you can do that stretch, but if its just the partof dropping into the canyon, I would say skip it.We were done with the whole train thing by 9am.  Our next mission wasto make it to Cuenca.  So we flagged down a bus going along thePan-American (they don't stop in town) and hopped in.  The bus ride was pretty.  Driving the roads of Ecuador involves a lotof windy mountain roads, going down one side of the valley, only to goup the other side, cross over the top and repeat all over again.  Thegreat thing about Ecuador is that it is incredibly scenic.  Beautifulscenic valleys with little towns spotted all around.  The great thingabout going up and down into different valleys is that the sceneryalways changes and you get a view from the top and the bottom.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1207095840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1207095840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1207095840/tpod.html Sun, 04 May 2008 20:41:04 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Salinas, Salinas, Ecuador

We were hoping to spend some more time in Salinas but we got screwed up on several spots.  The bus leaving for Salinas didn't come for a long time, so our time got minimized largely by that.  Second, we were hoping to catch this supposedly cool ass train which only leaves on certain days of the week, so we had to make it up to Salinas and back down to Guardanda to catch the last bus at 4pm.  Kind of sucked since Salinas was this tucked away little town that seemed really nice.  Some Swiss dude apparently came here a quite a while (I can see why, it reminds me a bit of Switzerland) and he taught the locals how to manufacturer several varieties of Swiss cheese.  They created a small factory and sell cheese now (really small operation), but it was pretty sweet to get cheese here (no swiss quality, but what can you expect for a fraction of the price, it was quite tasty)..  We had only about an hour to wander around town which was really sad, cute little town.One thing that has caught me off guard about Ecuador is their sports.  They love soccer, but can you guess what their second favorite sport is?  It's played literally everywhere you go in this country, and to me it seemed out of place.  Volleyball.  They play it everywhere and there are volley ball courts everywhere.  And by courts I mean, two poles of any kind with whatever kind of netting you can find to string between the them.  So far it seems that all of the plazas have some sort of provision for volley ball playing.  Its hilarious.  They play in their jeans and with soccer balls (what else?  duh).  It seems to be mostly two-on-two.  Whats awesome is that everyone watches.  Everyone in the plaza is gathered around this concrete paved volleyball 'court' and cheering them on.  It was awesome seeing these people in Salinas amassed around the volleyball court in their traditional Andean clothing cheering on volleyball.  Never would I have guessed that this is what they played here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1209686280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1209686280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1209686280/tpod.html Sun, 04 May 2008 20:23:54 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Guardanda, Ecuador

From Banos we came here to Guardanda since its a jumping point to this mountain town called Salinas.  Not much really here in Guardanda.  We took a really long bus ride from Ambato to here.  We were supposed to pass all of these sweet volcanoes on the ride, but unfortunately it's the rainy season and everything is pretty much up in the clouds.  We did get a really quick view of the peak of Cotopaxi, literally lasted a couple of minutes before it was swallowed by the clouds.I almost forgot to tell you, the closest my 35mm SLR camera has ever gotten to getting robbed was in Ecuador.  It happened when we left Quito for Banos in the Quito bus station.  The bus was fairly empty, mom and I were the first ones to get on, then a few other people got on.  My bag backpack didn't fit above the seats, so some lady started being really nice to me and telling me that I should put it down below that the bus driver would watch it and take care of it.  So I put my little bag down (with my camera and crap in it) on the bus seat and told my mom to watch it while I went out and put the bag under the bus.  I was gone literally a minute.  When I got back my bag was zipped open and mom was asking me if I left it unzipped.  Nope.  Looked inside the bad and nothing was missing.  There was literally only 4 people on the bus and they were all around us.  I sat down felling sketched out and wondering how it happened.  The bus wasn't scheduled to leave for another few minutes.  As departure time dwindled, I noticed that they people sitting around us all left the bus to 'go get something' or 'make a call.'  The bus pulled out of the terminal with only my mom and I.  Those 3 to 4 other people on the bus were there to totally try and steal our shit.  I had thought it was really strange how overly friendly the lady was with helping me with my baggage.  It seemed so obvious afterwords, but it literally all happened within a couple of minutes.  Sketchy as fuck.  I should have realized that my mom wasn't used to watching personal belongings and I should have thought twice about having her watch my stuff.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206919980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206919980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206919980/tpod.html Sun, 04 May 2008 19:57:36 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Banos, Banos, Ecuador

I'm actually going to try and keep things brief on the blog since time is running low and the fact that I am writing this even from sometime in the near future (wouldn't you like to know where I actually am, hahahah *I'm doing Dr. Evil pinky pointing thing to my mouth*).Mom and I made it to Banos, a popular tourist town, yesterday.  We didn't do much since we got in on the later side yesterday.  We did go to the natural hot springs at night though, those were pretty sweet.  Today we rented some bikes and cruised down the mountain hugging road towards the town of Puyo.  There are all kinds of view points of waterfalls, cable rides, and general tourist traps.  We didn't really stop at any of them, really touristy.  Although everyone and their grandma has one of the cable car businesses, it seemed so overly touristy, so we blew them all off.  The bike ride was beautiful however, dropping in elevation and changing to a different climate.  Its pretty much all down hill which is awesome.  The whole trip to Puyo is around 65km, most tourists stop around km 8ish I think (to be honest I don't remember the distances and where the stopping points were), but we made it  quite far, getting to around km 40-something.  At this point the road started getting dark outside, boring, flat, and not much to see, so we threw our bikes on the roof of an up-hill bus and grabbed an easy ride uphill back to Banos.Just finished a book by Michael Crichton called 'Next,' pretty interesting, fucked up world of gene therapy stuff.  I was out of reading material and started in on the book that I have been holding out on since I was saving it for Costa Rica and the beach since it's one of my favorite authors and it takes place in Costa Rica.  Allan Weisbecker's 'Can't you get along with anyone?' is what its called, its supposed to be great, so I'm curious.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206683580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206683580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206683580/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 01:02:52 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Quito, Quito, Ecuador

Sitting in the Buenos Aires airport, it was pretty strange knowing that 'this was it' so to speak.  I would not be returning any time soon to Argentina.  Very surreal since every time I have left Argentina I knew that I would be returning.  This time I think I was just lying to myself, figuring I would be back in no time.  Landing in Quito is sweet because the airport is basically in the city and as you get lower you get this feeling that you are about to land on the roofs of apartments and houses, the plane gets so close to the surroundings, its pretty crazy.  I'm meeting my mom here for two weeks of travel for her vacation.  She has been wanting to come and meet up with me and until now it had not really worked out.  Things will be quite a bit more tame and traveling will be much more luxurious.  It will be an interesting change.Mom picked me up from the airport and it was really nice to see her since it had been over a year and a half since we last saw each other.  She put us up in this sweet boutique hotel called Cafe Cultura.  Really nice.  There is no way I would have paid to stay at that joint, so it was nice that mom was covering the bills. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206597000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206597000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206597000/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 00:52:16 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Buenos Aires, Capital Federal District, Argentina

It was sad to leave La Cumbre, so I buried my head into my bookand decided not to think about it.  After all I had to worry about mybus making to BA through all the road blocks, my flight was leaving inless than 30 hours from now. So here is whats going on.  The government had announced about 3weeks ago that they would be increasing the export tax by 10%, from 35%to 45%, on Argentinian agriculture products that were being exported. The government claimed that this was need to control inflation.  Thistotally screws the farmers on their export sales and profits.  So whatdid the farmers do?  They drove their tractors onto the roads andhighways, blocking them.  They were blocking any truck from passingthrough that was carrying agricultural products.  This was happeningacross the entire country.  No food was getting through.  This startedabout three weeks ago but it has only gotten to a bad level within thepast few days. As a result there were food shortages and prices were beginning torise.  In La Cumbre, there was no more beef, no more chicken, veggieswere running low as well as other goods.  The main gas station in townhas been out of gas for about a week since the gas trucks couldn't getthrough. Every day things seemed to get more elevated.  Tractors andprotesters where in plazas in some of the cities, especially the onesclose to large agriculture growing areas.  They were gathering andsurrounding the towns and municipal buildings in protest.  It was quitea sight to see all this going on on TV.  There were also fights on thestreets as huge crowds of farmers and their supporters clashed withcrowds of the governments supporters.  The whole country was basicallyup in arms and in chaos. It seemed that most of the general population was in support ofthe farmers.  Another interesting thing, what started out as a protestagainst the tax, seemed to morph into a protest against KristinaKirchner and her government (she was just recently elected intooffice).  What's really at the root of all this is corruption.  Thereis so much corruption and so much tax money that is being put into thepockets of politicians and elected officials, that there isn't enoughmoney going to where it needs to be.  Watching all of this on TV, Noemilaughed and said this crap happens about every 8 to 10 years.  She saidthe government does something stupid, the people protest, the wholething crashes, and a new government is put in.  Noemi and Mon werelaughing wondering how long Kristina would last as president. She mentioned another interesting trend, the shortage of coins. She said that every time there is a shortage of change or coins, it's ahistorical sign in Argentina that there are severe money problems. Since I first stepped into Argentina back in last June, there has beena problem with stores and people not being able to give or have change(or coins) and it has gotten progressively worse.  Noemi said that thelack of change has been quite bad the past 6 months. All this crap was going on while I was trying to catch my flightwhich left in less than 30 hours.  And I still had to make it to BAthrough the road blocks (normally a 12 hour trip). I slept the whole way on the bus and woke up once we got into BA. We were only an hour and a half late and I missed seeing all the roadblocks.  Things in BA seemed to be normal except for the stores nothaving much in the sense of fresh food products and at night peopletook to the street corners and balconies to bang pots and pans insupport of the farmers.  Pretty funny to hear and watch it go on.  Iwas just glad to know that I wouldn't be missing my flight. Dumped my stuff at Abi's and took care of a bunch of crap before Ihad to leave.  I decided that since my poof-ball-of-a-hair style wasout of control and that I was going to be seeing my mom the followingday after not having seen her in a year and a half..... that it washaircut time.  I went down to a barber and got a my first haircut in along time (Fran, a friend of mine in La Cumbre, cut it about a monthago but it was more of a quick trim) and it was the first time that Isaw myself with grown out hair style in a long time (I normally buzz itat a # 1 or # 2).  I think mom will be pleased. Went out to dinner with Andy and Pete and then we met up with Abiafterwords for some drinks.  It was a pretty chill night actually.  Notmany people were out, in fact it was the deadest state ofnight-life that I have ever seen BA in.  I attributed it to the wholeprotest and instability thing.  I had to leave for the airport at 3amanyways, so we drank until then and I took off. It was pretty surreal sitting in the airport in BA knowing thatthis was it, I was heading out of Argentina for good.  Aug and Nora,before I left for my two year trip, had a prediction that once Istepped foot into Argentina, that I would never leave.  Proves thatthey know me well because they pretty much hit the nail right on thehead.  If I didn't have to start heading home to see my brothergraduate from University (he graduates in a month), then I would stillbe in Argentina.  Probably teaching for Noemi's school in La Cumbre. I'd love to be able to sum up Argentina and my time there in anice little summary, but it would be really tough for me to do sowithout making it too long.  So instead I think I will leave you withthese few ideas: it was beautiful, it was my favorite country in SouthAmerica, it felt like home, and they now hold the record (in my book)for not only having the most beautiful women in the world but alsohaving the best beef in the world.  What more could you really ask forin a country? 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206508500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206508500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206508500/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 00:48:40 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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La Cumbre, Argentina

Do you remember what I was up to last September?  I was working myway back up through South America to get home by Thanksgiving. Remember Chelsea?  Well it was about mid-September when she told methat she would be joining the PeaceCorps once she graduated.  Thistotally changed what would happen to us if I came home... we wouldn'tget back together.  At the time it seemed like the world had flippedupside down on me.  Having no more motivation to head home, the choicewas clear to me as to what my next move would be.  Go back to Cordobato party and find Tom's (my godfather, not my high school buddy) longlost friends in La Cumbre. Best decision ever.  Not even sure why it was a 'decision,' as itwas the only thing I wanted to do.  The idea was to chill and party myass off while I waited for the seasons to change to go down toPatagonia. Never would I have been able to guess what would develop fromknocking on the door of 109 Colon in La Cumbre.  Behind that door Ifound a family so fun, welcoming, and generous, that they didn't leaveme any option but to stay with them.  I had found Tom's long lostfriends, the Frasers.  Little did they know that by giving me a key totheir front door, a whole bunch of other doors would actually be openedfor me as well.  Not only did it lead me to get to know a great family,but I would end up feeling like I had a home here in Argentina.  Andthat changed everything.    What put the icing on the cake and what gave me a mission(something to dedicate my time and mind to) was learning how toparaglide.  It was a challenge, something I hadn't had in a while.  Itwas stimulating as well as fun.  Whats cool is that it can be technicalas well as an adrenaline rush.  I remember the feeling I had during andafter my first centrifuge (centrifuge is a maneuver where you turn inone direction progressively harder, progressively swinging you outsideways, like a centrifuge does, until your body ispractically parallel with the ground, and like a centrifuge it pullsyou outwards with an incredible force).  My heart was pounding,adrenaline was bursting through my veins in full force and my brain wassaying 'HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME!'  What I also love aboutparagliding is that its portable and you can do it all over the place. Plainly put, learning to paraglide was awesome and I look forward toflying where ever I go. When it finally came down to my last day in La Cumbre, I couldn'tbelieve it was my last.  It was strange because I have left andreturned to this town so many times over the last 6 months, that I hadgotten used to leaving and returning.  But this time I wouldn't bereturning.  Noemi, Monica, Tristan, Antonia and I were sitting inNoemi's living room watching the unfolding news (farmers havebeen protesting the past three weeks, partially shutting down thecountry and its roads, more on this in another entry) when everyonestarted asking me when I would be back and when I would be moving to LaCumbre.  I know that I will be back here some day, but I have onlyflirted with the idea that I could come back and actually live here. Although Noemi and Monica never mentioned it outright, I felt likethey had alluded that there could be a teaching position for me attheir school in La Cumbre (they run a small primary and secondaryEnglish school).  Something to think about.  For now, I promised them that I would work on making butt-loads ofcash and return as soon as I could. As I was scarfing down ham and cheese empanadas an hour before Ileft (no other empanadas due to the protesting; I will write more onthis in another entry), Noemi and Mon couldn't help themselves but pokesome fun at me for the last time with their jokes and prodding.  Iretaliated by telling them I would send my kids knocking on their door. When it was time to catch my bus, I got driven down to the smallbus station.  In the car, Noemi told me that they had a great timehaving me around and that they would miss me very much.  Then Noemisaid something that I couldn't have put in a better way as to how theyfelt about me as I did for them, 'Chuck, you have been officiallyadopted into the Fraser family.  We are really going to miss you.'  Ifelt the exactly the same.  I really felt like I was apart of theirfamily and that I had a home in La Cumbre.  I told them that I felt thesame way and that I didn't even know how to express my thanks foreverything.  The bus was waiting for me when we pulled in, so I had togive some quick hugs, kisses, and thank yous and before I knew it thebus rolling out of town as I waved goodbye through the windows. Back in September an unexpected twist was thrown my way, tossing me in a totally new direction.  At the time it caught me off guard and I wasn't really sure what to expect, I found myself asking 'was this what I wanted?'  My brother Oliver said something to me at that moment that I remember very clearly.  He said, 'everything is perfect, its exactly the way it should be.  It may not seem like it right now, but looking back on this someday, you will see that it was absolutely perfect the way things worked out.'  He was totally right.  Looking back, it seems strange how perfectly it all worked out.  This twist of things in life is really something that is tough to stomach at the time and it may seem wrong, but its healthy and it's probably exactly where you should have been all along.  I owe Noemi and her fam a heart-felt thanks, one that I have a tough time putting into words.  It was an incredible time, thanks for everything.  I hope you got some good laughs out of it.  I promise to try and not lick my knife.....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206497280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206497280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206497280/tpod.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:10:05 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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La Cumbre, Argentina

Lulo has been pissing me off, so I didn't feel like staying with him.  Noemi's house was full with visitors for the long weekend, so Tristan and Antonia took me in for the week.   I had a lot of random shit that I had to take care of while in La Cumbre.  I had to gather, organize, and pack up my crap that I stored at Noemi's.  I had to pick up my paraglider.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I bought a glider.  I got a good deal on a second hand Gradient Onyx.  It's one that I have been flying a bit over the past few weeks to try out.  Was going to buy a decent looking second hand harness as well, but after flying in it, I decided no way, it flew like shit and I felt really unsafe in it.  So I will be going home with only a glider and will have to buy a harness when I get home. Also I was also trying to squeeze in doing the test for my paragliding license.  There are several advantages to doing the test here, the major one being that I won't have to do any expensive courses or have to jump through bull-shit bureaucracy, licensing and testing issues once I am home.  I would basically be more or less set to fly.  Huge advantage.  Luckily I had been doing quite a bit of reading and studying back when I originally started learning how to paraglide, otherwise I would have been pretty screwed.   Two parts to the exam.  First part, I had to pass the written exam which would be in Spanish.  Second would be two flights of which I had to have a perfect take-off, perform certain maneuvers in the air in a certain amount of time and then land within 35 meters of the center target.  I got the written test material the night before I was going to take the test.  It was a list of 360 questions in Spanish covering meteorology, aerodynamics, flying conditions, turbulence, safety, equipment, and general flight techniques.  There would be 60 questions chosen from this list for my written exam.  I studied the 360 questions all night, racking my damn brain.  If the damn questions were in English it would have been a breeze, but it took me forever since they were in Spanish.  There were so many damn complicated and unknown words that weren't in my Spanish vocab.  Plus the wording of some of these damn questions was so damn confusing at times (you know how exams can be... now I had to deal with technical questions in Spanish). Took the written exam the following day and was allowed to use an English-Spanish dictionary.  Thank god for Antonia's awesome dictionary.  Took me two damn hours to finish the 60 god damn questions.  Passed the fucker though.  *Side Note: I feel the need to explain the abundant cursing that has appeared lately in the blog.  I'm currently reading a book that has lots of cursing in it. That's all.  Please bare with me.*  I was glad to know that the long and hard last-minute studying paid off.  The flying conditions were good towards the very end of the day, so I was able to squeeze in one of my test flights.  I had to use a harness that I had never flown before (incidentally it was the one I was going to buy) which kind of sucked since a harness can totally change the flight (feeling, maneuverability, basically everything), its equally important as the actual glider.  So I wasn't thrilled that I had to use a new harness since it would totally change the way I would fly.... after all this was my test.   The takeoff was perfect.  However once in the air, I felt totally different and screwed up due to the new harness.  The feeling was totally different.  Despite being all screwed up, I completed the maneuvers (just within the limits, it was pretty close) and had a perfect landing.  I did the 2nd flight the next day, felt like shit in the air again (had to use the same harness), did my maneuvers as fast as possible and landed. AND I PASSED!  YEA!  Paper work has been sent in and I will officially get an Argentinian and an International License.  Sweetness.  I was pretty stoked that I was able to squeeze that in and complete it. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206151560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206151560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1206151560/tpod.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:08:11 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

We picked out boat to leave Uruguay so that it would work out nicely with dropping Balci off at the airport.  All was well until on the boat.  Turns out there was a technical problem, so the boat took 1.5hrs instead of 50minutes.  That cut into our timing a bit, so when we arrived in BA Balci had to make some haste.  High-five and a hug later Balci was in a cab on his way to the airport.  I'm glad that Balci was able to come down for a visit since I hadn't seen him in about two years and we always have a great time causing trouble together.  He claimed he was going to take a month off of boozing, he said he could use some sobriety after the constant partying we had been doing.  I felt the same way, little did I know what was coming. After Balci got in his cab, I headed to the bus station.  With less than a week to go before I leave Argentina for good, there was no question where I was going to spend the last week. La Cumbre.  Got to the bus station in BA and it was an utter mess.  Fuck.  Semana Santa (Easter Week).  Apparently the bus station has been a mess the past few days since everyone was clearing out to visit family for the weekend.  Every single seat was taken.  Absolutely zero space today.  Booked a ticket the following day.  I'm not religious, so excuse me for saying 'fuck religion and it having to always get in the way.' Stuck in BA for the night, I gave Abi a call to see if I could crash at his place for the night.  I received good news and bad news from Abi.... 'Hell yea you can stay and we are going out partying tonight to celebrate my getting accepted to a hospital in San Fransisco!'  Fuck.  Apparently today is 'Match Day' or whatever they call it in the Medical field.  It's the day that every single Med student in the US finds out where they were accepted for their residency.  Abi had just heard that he got accepted to his second choice, meaning we were now going to go celebrate.  Celebrate by going out to dinner and then partying.... meaning drinking.  Drinking.  Fuck.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1205978700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1205978700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chuckonearth/south-america07/1205978700/tpod.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:06:21 -0400 The unraveling adventure of how this gringo plans to lose himself on purpose in South America.

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Punta del Este, Uruguay

I think the title of this entry might allude to what we did in Punta del Este.  Beach.  I know I mentioned that Balci has blond hair and blue eyes, but have I mentioned that the kid is pale white?  The kid got fried. Not much to really report here other than we chilled out, ate well and kept boozing to a medium level in comparison to what we have done over the past two weeks. The plan is the swing by Colonia on Wednesday to check it out and then drop into BA on Thursday morning since Balci's flight out is Thursday afternoon.
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