Playing Catch-up with blogging

The plan was to have a quiet night in Buenos Aires, go to bed early and wake up at 7 am to go to the zoo so that we could make the 4:30 ferry to Uruguay. This would have worked without any flaws if we hadn´t drank two bottles of wine, a little bottle of scotch and an equally sized bottle of vodka. Instead of our early night, we set off for the club at 2 am. Needless to say, after a toga party, we all woke up to two British girls running around, loudly exclaiming how they were late for checkout .... That meant we were as well. So instead of going to an extremely inhumane zoo, where they drug the animals so that you can pet them, we hopped onto the train to El Tigre and made our way to Uruguay.

El Tigre was beautiful, it had a nice vibe, the kind you can only get on the coast. The river was the sweet colour of chocolate milk, and it was very evident that it was full of toxic waste due to the many dead fish floating around.

After a boat trip that was longer than expected and a bus trip that included being detained for an hour due to a tip to the cops that someone was smuggling coke ....

We finally made it to Montevideo at 12:30 am, got a quick dinner of two burgers and fries each and slept in a super homey hostel.

Our one goal in Montevideo: eat obscenely large steaks .... and let me tell you: they were OBSCENE. The hardest thing we did that day was finish those steaks.

If I had to sum Montevideo up in one word: Steak.

The Bad Ass Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday morning, followed streams of people on and off the metro and made our way to Milhouse, our new home for the next few days. It's extremely easy to miss this place, it's just a big black door on the street with a little white button to press to get in. It could be anything, but at first glance you would not even consider it to be the hostel that it is. Fully equipped with 6 floors, a basement with a big kitchen, a bar with a pool table (which has been our search of choice most nights we go out), spiral stairs, laundry service and it's right downtown.

We've spent the better part of our days walking around the central part of the city, enjoying the European-like architecture, checking out shops and drinking espresso. Today's destination was the cemetery, and wow! the amount of money and thought that goes into a place that holds your dead corpse is remarkable. Some of them had multiple floors, big statues on them or even the family coming to enjoy lunch inside. And there's row after row of this. It's an interesting concept and some extremely beautiful ones, but also slightly crazy.

I'm writing this at 1 in the morning before I fall asleep. But I'm going to bed early, there's only 3 of us in the room out of 8, and we're only here because one has class in the morning, another guy is sick and I've got an eye infection that I don't want to spread. The party's still going on strong downstairs.

There are a few things that sum up Buenos Aires: food, bed bugs, wine, the tango show, Nico and Binny and the Dutch Girls.

We spent most of our time looking for or eating food. Jeremy and I must have gone to the same All You Can Eat place at least 4 or 5 times. Then there was the Chinese Restaurant across the street which had the most amazing soup .... and that´s not even mentioning how many times we smuggled Uggis into the hostel.

Shout out to Nico and Beni .... two guys we "apparently" met in Mendoza and then ended up sharing a room with in MillHouse. Check out Nico´s blog http://nechemya.blogspot.com/ and Binny´s Myspace http://www.myspace.com/binnykagedan Now we can´t seem to get rid of Nico, he´s pretty much part of the family. ;)

The tango show was absolutely phenomenal, the dancers were sexy and perfect, the lights were extremely well done and the music was to die for. The only thing that could´ve made it better was if we had splurged for the dinner and the show .... we were all starving which threw off the mood just slightly.

We met two Dutch girls, Elleke and Mirjam in Rosario and parted ways not thinking that we´d meet up again, but we ran into them again in MillHouse, in fact they were staying in the room next door! I don´t know what to say about these girls other than the fact that we´re all very fond of them and we had a hell of a time together. (now when I talk about "we" it will typically include Nico)

I know this took forever to update ... it´s not as easy as it sounds to post a blog all of the time. It´s a hard life down here. :p

Lots of love,

Jenn, Jeremy (& Nico)

Oktoberfest

This was all we had .... a fanny pack each.

Oktoberfest:
After a very relaxing night in the beautiful Alta Gracia, which seemed to have a better night life than Rosario, we took a look at one of the houses Che grew up in. It was a nice, quaint house and now we've seen the house he was born in and one of the many houses he lived in during his childhood. He was quite a good looking kid btw.
We wished we could've stayed longer, but we set off for the big city of Corboda right after that. Following the interesting process of shoving our backpacks into lockers we hopped on a bus with nothing in hand except for a fanny for Oktoberfest in a nearby town. When we arrived, there were people everywhere, in the streets, in the shops, and they were wearing everything from regular clothes to kilts and pointy green hats. This was just outside of the actual festival.
We bought our tickets and walked in, prepared with mug in hand. As we first walked in, the sound of folk, German music of some sort which included a harp filled the air. People were standing on their seats yelling, dancing and trying to balance themselves. Friends had their arms around each other, all looking quite similar with their rosy red cheeks, and dancing until they fell down. After sampling our fair share of beer, we set off for cordoba and then a 10 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires, on which we got wine and whiskey instead of wine and champagne.
It was a really fun experience, but after so much time in bus stations and without hostels we decided to stay awhile in Buenos Aires......

In Argentina, we just air dry.

Oktoberfest:

After a very relaxing night in the beautiful Alta Gracia, which seemed to have a better night life than Rosario, we took a look at one of the houses Che grew up in. This was pretty neat, so now we've seen the house he was born in and one of the many houses he lived in during his childhood. He was quite a good looking kid btw.

We wished we could've stayed longer, but we set off for Corboda right after that. Following the interesting process of shoving our backpacks into lockers we hopped on a bus for Oktoberfest. When we arrived, there were people everywhere, in the streets, in the shops and they were wearing everything from regular clothes to kilts and pointy green hats. This was just outside of the actual festival.

We bought our tickets and walked in, prepared with mug in hand. As we first walked in, the sound of folk, German music of some type including a harp filled the air. People were standing on their seats yelling, dancing and trying to balance themselves. Friends had their arms around each other, all looking quite similar with their rosy red cheeks, and danced until they fell down. After sampling our fair share of beer, we set off for cordoba and then a 10 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires, on which we got wine and whiskey instead of wine and champagne.

Jeremy fit his whole life into a tiny locker. 5 pesos beats the 45 you have to pay for a hostel.

A night of speed & coke

This is how our night started:

"..... So Jeremy, we have two options: we can try to find a hostel on the long weekend in a popular city at 11:30pm..... OR we can ditch our stuff in a locker at the bus station, spend that money on alcohol, party until 6 in the am and then catch our bus at 9 am."

"Porque no? We do have to be at the bus station at 9! Why would we waste our money if we have to leave so early."

So..... This was just the beginning. We were told that Rosario has a jumping night life, and the whole time we were there it was none existent apparently. Maybe they were preparing for the long weekend, which has a holiday that no one has even heard of, but any excuse for extra time off work right?

After walking down the main streets of Rosario, with speed in hand, a little early (Aka 12) for the party scene we spotted a bar along the river. After a couple of strong drinks we wandered over to this 3 level club and were so excited to finally find something decent. And what happens.... But of course you're not allowed to wear shorts and I guess in Oliver we're too casual because Jeremy was wearing shorts.

That idea was shot, so instead we went out with our waitress and her friend. And when they went home we introduced ourselves to the next table and spent around an hour trying to learn names and explaining why were in Argentina.

The sun was almost coming up at 6 am so we headed back to our home..... The bus station, where we sat on some comfy, metal chairs, intertwined with our bags and tried to sleep.

Now folks.... I've slept in a tent in the winter, I've slept in a quinzee and I've been so cold that my fingers go white because I've lost circulation, but never, and I say never, have I ever been this cold. I woke up the grumpiest Jeremy I have ever seen and we moved to the slightly warmer cafe for a cup of tea and a "head on the table" sleep session.

We practically split a gut laughing about this later that night, it's nights like this that make a trip interesting and really makes you appreciate that "cold, freezer-like" room in the basement that has a soft bed and so many blankets you feel like you're being crushed.

Finally up to date

Okay, time to actually catch up on what we´ve been up to now that we have to wait an hour to even leave for the bus station.
On monday, in Mendoza; the area well known for it´s Malbecs, we decided to go on a wine tour. This was no regular wine tour, this was a wine tour on bikes, in the Argentinian streets. We started off with two friends from Mar del Plata, Argentina and were joined by two Canadians; Brad and Lucy from Ottawa. And let me tell you .... these bikes .... were the least comfy I´ve ever been on in my entire life. The seats were made for alien people, not for human usage. At the first winery we got to sample three wines and have a tour of the wine making area (they used cement tanks to ferment the grapes.) After this cool experience we got our bikes to begin our trek to the next winery .... but alas .... Jenn´s bike had a flat tire .... Those of you who know Jennifer will know that this comes as no surprise. So after waiting for the guy to bring her a new bike we got to follow him everywhere and not have to look at the map once, which was a relief after a couple more wine tours. All in all it was an amazing trip! The whole day was spent drinking wine, riding our bikes, dodging traffic, making videos and then ended with a all you can eat BBQ and yet more wine.
Moving onto our wednesday experiences .... we spent the whole day wandering the city and getting to know it´s beauty. Mendoza is known for always being sunny (the best two qualities! Wine and sun!) At 8pm we arrived at the bus station and were searching for our bus, expecting a greyhound type of transportation. We found our platform #27 and found a hotel on wheels ... no joke. This thing was straight out of a dream: double decker, shiny black, red leather reclining seats, spacious sitting areas, an attendant and this was just walking in and what we saw. We sat down in our seats (front row, top deck, ceiling to floor windows all around, tv, dinner, wine AND champagne.) And no .... this wasn´t a dream!
So 11 hours later we were in Rosario and walked 5km, packs and all to our hostel at 7 in the morning (we were NOT expecting this.) We spent the day doing more walking around the city. The sights were amazing, the buildings have such incredible architecture, the river view is dirty, but so pretty and the people are so friendly. In fact more than once people would stop to talk to us, just while we were walking down the street.
Side note: Jeremy´s goal is to buy a pair of breifs from every country we visit. From here he bought some blue ones from one of the many super attractive women here. I´m thinking maybe we should post pics of him in each pair .... what do you think?
And of course we met some more people from Holland, and a guy from Brazil. They were amazing at planning our trip, but couldn´t plan their own.
Today we enjoyed a day of walking, seeing the sites of Rosario, reading spanish books (we´ve both finished about a paragraph each.) And are about to go to Cordoba and then to Alta Gracia.
For .... OKTOBERFEST!!! Yes .... in Argentina. We´ll update you on how it goes.
Peace and Love
Jenn & Jeremy
ps I know I keep on switching the point of view (1st person etc) buuuut it´s difficult writing for 2 people!
pps we still haven´t found internet fast enough to upload pictures .... we´ll make that a goal ... soon.

Finally, another blog!

Jenn: Blue

Jeremy: Green

Wednesday morning, at the wee hour of 10 AM, we were awoken by a crazy, loud Dutch guy barging into the room. This was the beginning of two great days with Roderick, our new friend from Amsterdam. After breakfast we decided to trek our way across the city to the neglected zoo located on the mountain (why a mountain... I will never know. But it had amazing views) After four straight hours of walking and dodging traffic we arrived at the zoo where we saw a polar bear (I would not want to mess with one of these beasts), white tigers, a jaguar, llamas and many more crazy animals sadly trapped inside of cages. What a fantastic, but exhausting day, so we hopped onto the metro and may way back to the hostel for a siesta. At 8pm we woke up and went out for dinner (this is quite a reasonable hour for dinner, you would very rarely go any earlier) at Vacas Gordas. This was by far my favourite meal so far: a steak so large that Jeremy and I had to share one, arroz, beer and a splash of coke with my rum.

Roderick & Jeremy at the zoo!

Our friend el tigre, he said ¨hola¨ in growl form

Of course on a wednesday night we had to check out the night life, which was incredible. Not much is open in the morning, it picks up a little after about 1 and then come 8 everyone is out, all of the restaurants are open and dinner is just getting started. You don´t go out to the bar until about 1 am, not our usual 11pm, and you stay out until 5am (no wonder nothing´s open in the morning.)

After a long, drawn out goodbye with Roderick, including eating lunch on the ground at the bus station, we set off on an 8 hour bus ride through the Andes to Argentina. And just let me say .... the Andes are the most beautiful mountains I´ve ever seen in my life; so grand and proud standing.

We arrived in Mendoza around 10pm and ended up following a huge group of students to the closest hostel (no having to check the map for us!) Jennifer ended up in a dorm room with three giggly, loud, abnoxious girls and I had only a quiet guy who was already sleeping. After a meal of soggy fries we decided to call it a night in hopes of a better tomorrow. Early the next morning, we packed up our things and went in search of a new hostel. This time we found an old mansion turned into a hostel called Hostel Independencia. With this as our new home base we´ve spent the last couple days exploring the city, drinking mate and meeting fellow travellers.

Also, we don´t have spell check because this website is in Spanish, and we´re too lazy to double check it so this is raw blogging at it´s finest. And we´ll put up pictures next time .... the internet is extremely slow here....


CHEERS!


Jenn & Jeremy

buenos dias!

So after 2 days of travelling, visiting Vancouver, LA and Lima, and having NO sleep we've finally we´ve arrived in Santiago, Chile. We´re staying at an international youth hostel, it´s pretty empty but still so great ... 24 hour door service so we can get icecream all night long. So far most people seem to think we´re married, that´s kinda weird ....
This morning when we landed we could see our breath and were worried we´d freeze our buns off, but thank gah the sun came arising and we were sweating profusely. After a long day of walking past a million hotdog stands we had a little siesta followed by a steak dinner and a bottle of wine. What a terribly amazing idea that siesta was!
We´ve purchased bananas, kiwis and wine to prepare for our bus trip to Argentina. We´ve deicided that the big city life isn't for us small town folk. Although it is really neat seeing restaurants and stores packed at 10 pm.
Jeremy: So I´m very impressed with Jenn´s spanish, without it we probably would´ve died. the end
The plan for tomorrow: Wine, a bus, Jenn´s spanish and the duo!