The "W" II

Torre Del Paine is crowded and touristy for a reason. Its beacause its frikin beautiful! As we walked on from the main refugios we saw less people and more beauty. For instance our first day we hiked for about 4 hours with a perfect view of a glacier and at our camping site we were only a 3 minute walk to a stunning look out point. We used a variety of exclamations to express our enthusiasm as the scenery improved around every corner. Wow! Cool! and Ya! became regular vocabulary. Sometimes it was necessary to just stand in silence and attempt to take it all in. And you knew there had to be something cool around the corner when you heard the classic oh s***! phrase. But let me be honest, this wasnt four days of just staring at the flowers. No way, we worked for those views. Hiking 6-8 hours a day with heavy packs on through ever changing weather and terrain. Paul and I forgot about playing "The Game" as those packs were just too ridiculous to do pushups with. So on we went, 3 of us, Paul, Kate, and I ahead of the others to set a pace. Sometimes we said nothing and concentrated on one step of a time, sometimes we stopped to scamper up a big rock and to take photos. The downhills were welcomed like old friends and at times we would run down them shouting "Parkcore! Parkcore!" mimicking Dwight from the Office. Uphills were greeted with gritted teeth and were what I would call "character builders". At the beginning of a hill a battle would rage on in my mind between two voices. We will call them the Stop voice and the Get on it voice.
Stop:Oh man here we go again, this sucks I just want to stop and lay down.
Getonit: Nope. Get on it.
Stop: Think my hammy is about to tear I better stop.
Getonit: Get on it.
Stop: I think I have to poop.
Getonit: Dont worry, Bear Grylls poops his pants too....
But in reality I learned to love the challenge of those hills and in general my South American trip as a whole has confirmed that I constantly need to be challenging myself or I get bored. Everyday whether traveling or not presents its own challenges. There are the obvious ones like waking up and exercising, but then there are the more subtle ones like the challenge to be 100% present wherever you are, to love your neighbor as yourself,or to not care what people think about you. I call them more subtle ones because sometimes they are easier to bury them behind the list of things you need to do and so on and so forth. We are created to face challenges. We are not stagnant beings we are dynamic, always changing. If you dont beleive me look in the mirror, or look back at a picture from the 6th grade. We grow and change physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I guess our job would be to choose the way we want to grow and following through with that. For instance you can go to the gym and get fit, or you can sit on the couch and get big, either way your going to be changing. I feel I can talk for a long time on this topic but I wont because I am paying for internet right now. Maybe we can go for coffee sometime? Ok great!
But all and all the trail was great and has been one of my highlights so far. The views were amazing and the physical challenge was fun. The comradery you develop with people you hike with is the kind that is second to none because daily you are pushing yourselves to a certain destination and you wont let the other person quit. But enough of that. Just enjoy the photos....

Grey Glacer and a Wow view.





A mountain that looked like choclate and dulce de leche ice cream.


The famous Torres





The end of the trail!

Puerto Natales, Turkey, and the "W" Trail I

Puerto Natales
After hanging out with Glaciers all day you can imagine we were tired, so a 6 hour bus trip to Puerto Natales was more than welcomed. We crossed the border from Argentina to Chile, there was no doubt about it, we were in Patagonia.(of course we were there already but this was as far south as I would be going) Look up Puerto Natales on Wikipedia and you wont be too impressed but I can tell you that Puerto Natales became one of my favorite cities quickly. Its a small port town with a cool atmosphere. It was no Valpairiso or Puerto Montt in terms of energy but if your looking for a good place to stay before or after a hike this is it. We stayed at a "Grade A" hostel called Eratic Rock Hostel. Its owned by an American guy who happend to be from Oregon. It was so refreshing to be able to talk a fellow West Coast guy and most of our conversations always led to the Oregon Ducks, the NFL, Hippies, and the State of Jefferson. On top of that it was just a great hostel with a hospitable staff who remembered my name all the time. We were lucky to find it when we did because they were probably the only place in town that celebrated Thanksgiving. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pie and an actual NFL game. Words cannot describe how happy I was on that night. Thanks E.R.! It was also Pauls first T-day and he says he approves of the holiday but thinks that American Football is for pansys.








The "W" Trail
The next day at 7 in the morning we set off on the trail. There was 7 of us in total, spanning from the countries of the U.S., New Zeland, Poland, and Denmark. 7 people...4 days...with nothing but tuna,rice, pasta, and tons of candy.(and Pauls Black Label that he had bought) We were young and full of anticipation, I thought that we might even get a medal after the whole hike. Our flames were quickly doused as soon as we stepped on the ferry that would take us across the lake. The wind was howling, raindrops pelted our faces and the cold cut to the bone. It looked like it would be a long 4 days. It was a quiet boat ride for me. I quickly ran through a variety of excuses I could make in order to get the heck out of there. My friend Dan(from Poland) smoked another cigarette. I had to poop. We finally docked and there was a huge line of people waiting to leave the park on the ferry. As we walked past them they stared at us without an ounce of envy and I swear a woman did the cross thing across her chest. (Note the reaction also could have to Pauls really short Rugby shorts he was wearing) The weather wasnt letting up we knew we just had to do it. I had been waiting a long time to do this trail and like in any good story the bigger the conflict, the better the story. So we put our heads down and went for it.......
Next up the "W" part II

Patagonia

Ok once I again I left a long break in between blog posts but Patagonia is the type of place you could go weeks without internet because there is just so much to do. Its been an amazing 2 or so weeks in one of the most southern places in the world. Ive seen the magestic lakes of Bariloche, hiked the worn trails of El Chalten, witnessed a piece of ice breaking off the famous Perrito Moreno Glacier, backpacked through popular "W" trail in Torres Del Paine, sailed through the Patagonia fjords on the Navimag ship, and ended at Puerto Montt in the middle of a busy fish market.

El Chalten
Known as the trekking capital of Argentina, this place was a small little village tucked in between the mountains in the shadow of the famous Fitz Roy Peak. It was Paul, an Aussie named Cain, an English couple and I that had the chance to hang out together in this town. Among our favorite places was the local microbrewery and an all you can eat pizza place. But ultimately we didnt go there for beer and pizza, no, we went there to hike. And hike we did. We stayed in a hostel for a couple of first, where the receptionist at the hostel just couldnt get over the fact that the name of our Aussie friend was Cain Sparrow. He was so enthused that evertime Cain walked into the main living room he would play the theme song for Pirates of the Carribean over the loud speakers. Paul, Cain, and I rented camping equipment, stuffed food in our packs and started walking. This place had a plethera of trails that could take you days to hike, but we only stayed for one night and just picked a trail and went. The biggest thing we noticed was the wind, it was strong and cold but as long as you kept moving you stayed warm. We hiked all day, got to the campsite and pitched our tents and then hiked some more. The cool thing that happens as you move further south is that it doesnt get dark until about 10 or 11 at night so you can pretty much hike all day. We wolfed down food and then piled into a very small 3 person tent for the night. Unfortunately for us the weather was pretty white out so we didnt get the views of Fitz Roy that we longed for, but on the positive side Cain had never really been in snow so you can imagine how stoked he was when it started snowing...










El Calafate
We were sad to leave El Chalten but a huge epic glacier awaited us so we couldnt be too sad. And of course the day we left El Chalten it was a picture perfect day. Go figure. The only thing to see in El Calafate is the famous Glacier so right when we got off our 6 hour bus ride we hopped on another bus to the Glacier. It was this Glaciers fault that I was even in Patagonia in the first place. I had first seen a picture of it about 5 years ago on the internet and it rendered me speechless the first time I saw it and I told myself that I had to be there. It definitely didnt let me down. Its about 19 miles long and 3 miles wide, and it just sits there looking all blue and stuff and reflecting the sun. There is not much to do but to gawk over it and to wait in anticipation for a piece of ice to fall off. It was crazy because you can hear the cracking and falling of ice but its ridiculously loud. We were lucky enough to witness a huge piece falling off. It was so cool and got your adrenaline pumping. Everyone started cheering, hugging, and high fiving each other as if we were at some sort of a sports event and someone had just shot a touchdown or something.
Next up Puerto Natales and the W trail....

Mate & Passports

As we are getting onto a connecting bus from the town Perrito Moreno to El Chalten....
Me: "You got everything?"
Paul:"Yep"
Me: "And the mate?
Paul: "Yep, got the Mate, thats all we need.....and the passports."



Thus was born the motto of our trip together "Mate & Passports." When I last left off we were in Bariloche on our way to El Bolson. El Bolson was a diamond in the rough. Its a small hippie town about 2 hours south of Bariloche but even more beautiful. Its the type of place where everybody probably knows everything about each other but there still cool with it. We were here only one night but I wish it had been more. Once settled into the hostel it was time to eat. We had the best pizza I have ever had in Argentina and then of course, topped it off with some ice cream.


Once our bellies were full we decided to walk it out by going on a hike. It was short in comparison to other hikes we had taken and by the time we got there it was about 9 at night but it was still bright out. It was one of those sick views of the entire city surrounded by the mountains, the kind where you feel like you could just sit there forever and just chill. The next morning after our short stint in El Bolson we boarded a bus headed for El Chalten. This journey would be a long 25 hour bus journey split into 2 days. The only cool part is that we would be traveling along route 40, which is a famous road that goes all the way down to Patagonia.(Kind of equivalent to our route 66 at home) Only half of this road is paved which meant a long part of our journey was spent not in a bus but a vibrating bus. Nevertheless, I actually enjoy long bus rides. There is just something about them where I can just stare out into the distance for hours in a sort of dreamstate imagining what the next destination will be like.



So it actually wasnt so bad for me. The dirt road, in my opinion, sort of added to the adventure. Sure it felt like the indiana jones ride at disneyland, and there wasnt a bathroom, but hey I was on my way to Patagonia, who am I to complain?
Once the bus ride was finished we ended up in the beautiful place of El Chalten. This place is in the heart of Patagonia and it FELT like Patagonia. The notorious wind that we heard so many raves about met us as soon as we exited the bus for a picture. This stuff cuts right through your clothes and makes your liver shiver.
El Chalten was the place we came to do some trekking, this was the place that would turn us into men....

Bariloche~It begins....

Hello to all! I am alive and well. I realize it has been a bit of time between my blog posts so I will try to catch you up. I just finished up school this last Thursday. Finals were uneventful and couldnt of come sooner. I ended up getting all A s and one B in my classes. Not bad for taking classes in spanish huh?
Not only was I busy with classes but I was busy enjoying my last few days in Buenos Aires. On my last full day in the city I finally made it to a soccer game. Argentina vs. Bolivia It was played at a place called River Stadium which just so conveniently is right across the street from my house. The game was awesome! I would say only half the stadium was filled but it was still incredibly loud. In an unfortunate outcome Argentina and Bolivia tied 1-1. But the legend of soccer in South America lived up to its name.

On my last day in Buenos Aires I went with my host family to a place just outside the city called Lujan. It was a cool historical place and a perfect last day to spend wtih them. Upon arriving back from Lujan I scrambled to pack my stuff, meet up with my friend Paul and was on a bus headed to a place called Bariloche by 7 o'clock that night.

Now you may remember Paul from one of my other blog posts. To refresh your memory he was the one who saved us all from the mad mob in Santiago, Chile my very first night in South America. He is 6'6 and has a really cool beard. He is the only other person I have ever met that enjoys sweets, especially ice cream, as much as I do. So as you can imagine we travel well together. Some would say we go together like copy and paste.
20 hours later we arrived in Bariloche and checked into our hostel, Marco Polo Inn. It so far has been the only hostel that I have stayed that has included free dinner. As you can imagine we were pretty stoked about it. Once settled in we set out to do the thing we came to Patagonia to do; to trek. Now Bariloche is a beautiful tourist town in the mountains. I would consider it the gateway into Patagonia and equivalent to a Lake Tahoe type of vacation place. This place had everything; lakes, mountains, rivers you name it. So we set out to discover it all.
Our very first trek was up to a small lookout point called Cerro Camponario. We got there by convincing the bus driver to let us ride for free because we didn't have a ticket. I think he felt sorry for us poor gringos so he let us hop on. Once there we could have taken a gondola for 40 pesos or hiked. Of course we chose the more adventurous route. The view was absolutely spectacular. It was supposedly one of the top 10 photographed views in the world. And we clearly could see why. Hundreds of pictures later we made our way down the mountain and hitch hiked our way back to town. It wasn't sketchy at all! It happend to be this nice middle aged woman who was a dance teacher and was just on her way to town. Once in town we finished our night by grabbing some ice cream just before dinner, you know just to get the metabolism going.

The next 2 days in Bariloche were crammed full of adventure. Our second day we did a hike up to a better viewpoint called Cerro Catedral. We randomly ran into a classmate of mine from Belgrano named Mark so he joined us for the adventure too. The hike was supposed to take 8 hours total but we cranked it out in about 7 hours. To pass the time we started playing THE GAME. Now the point of THE GAME is to not think about THE GAME. If by the unfortunate chance you do think about THE GAME you have to announce to everyone that you lost THE GAME and do 10 push ups where you stand. (Note, I just lost THE GAME, and just finished my 10 pushups) As you can imagine Paul and I have been doing loads of push ups. The other game we played was the HELLO GAME. This is where whenever you see a fellow hikers on the hike, you can't say the same word twice. So once we ran out of the basic words like hello and hola, we used random words like backpack and konichiwa. The best part about the hike was not the random games but the fact that the views around every corner just got better and better. We ended our hike standing in amazement as we stumbled upon a crystal blue lake surrounded by mountains.

It made all of that treking worth it. The day ended with more ice cream and a round of drinks and a sharing of stories around the dinner table. Ladies and gentleman that is not all. The next day we decided to go rafting. My other friend who we call Kevito, also joined us for this excursion. This is probably one of my favorite activities to do anywhere, so I was pretty stoked for it. The river itself was beautiful and stingingly cold. The color was emerald green and we were surrounded by mountains. The view itself was worth the money, and the rapids brought it over the top. They were all about Class III, and were pretty fun. I would still say that as an overall rafting experience I have to give the upper hand to Kidder Creek(Holla at my Kidder Folk!) but it was still a great time. As always we finished our day with ice cream but Paul and I decided to go big and order the full kg size. We went on to shock our friends and the entire ice cream parlor when we both finished the kg(killer of gringos) size. I just may have type II diabetes now. Totally worth it.




Now we are in a quaint hippie town called El Bolson. This place is even more stunning than Bariloche. But I have a feeling that this is typical of Patagonia, it gets more beautiful around every corner.....

Got any suggestions of any games to play while hiking? Shout them out!

These are a few of my Favorite things...

So I realized that even though I have been living in Buenos Aires for 4 months now I havent really written too much about it. For the sake of time I am just going to write some of my favorite things about this great city. For some this will mean absolutely nothing to you, for others maybe it can be a good reference for when you travel to Buenos Aires someday, and finally I am sure my fellow gringo-porteños will be able to appreciate most of these things and even add a few more....Shall we begin?

-Buenos Aires-

Alfajores*Dog walkers*Dulce de Leche*Pimped out colectivos*
Hand Gestures*Parillas*Wachiturros*Cheap food*No serious rules*Malbec Wine
*Automatic crosswalks*Cobblestone streets*San Telmo fair*Recoleta Fair*
Recoleta Cemetary*Delivery 24/7 of anything*Empanadas*Ice Cream
*The Office*Subte*Mate*Medialunas*Cafe con leche*Barrio Chino*Milongas
*A night out in Buenos Aires*Tango*Boliches*Swing Dancing*Flash Mobs
*Retiro Bus station*Architecture*Porteñas*Castellano*Musicians playing anywhere*El Boulder
*Late nights in La Boca*Being lost all the time*Gotan Project*Movie nights @ Von Kelsing
*Happy Shakes*Random Rallies/Protests*Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts
*No carding for alcohol/clubs*Futbol*Dancing*Food Conventions*Being the weird foreigner*
*Boca de Rio*Choripan*Chimichurri*Speed&Vodka*Pasta*Fernet&Coke*Cool Parks
*Recoleta Fair*Meat*PDA(only when you have someone)*Breakfast at 8 in the morning after a night out*Casa Rosada*Cafe Tortoni*La Bomba*River Stadium*Those nuts you get from the street venders*Styled Mullets*Lunfardos*The BK Stacker*Rocklets*Finding anything that is somewhat spicy*Puerto Madero*Tigre*Los Choclos*Avenida de Julio*Avenida de Mayo*Teatro Colon*Madres de Plaza de Mayo*Plaza San Martin*Subte A line*Calle Florida*Day trips to Uruguay*good conversations with the locals*Live music*The bandeon*Using the word Che & Boludo
*Mixture of cultures*Public transportation*los Fileteados*Peru Beach*
.....There are tons more things and know that this list will be continually added to.
What are your favorite things about Buenos Aires?


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5 o clock shadow adventures: Mar del Tuyu

You ever go to those places where there really is nothing uber special about it, but you still end up having the time of your life? Ya my weekend adventure to Mar del Tuyu was exactly that. It was one of those places where I would tell a local(someone from Argentina) that I was going there and they would either ask a)Why would I go there? or b)Is that in Argentina?
So why did I go to Mar del Tuyu? Well remember the amazing host family I am staying with?(yes the one that I found on Craigslist, thanks Craig!) Well they just so happend to have a beach house, and did what cool host families do best and invited my roomates and I to come!
So off we went, half of us in the car and the other half on the bus. We really did not do too much, one because of the on again-off again rain, but also because we were too busy eating. Let me break it down for you. Everyday for lunch and/or dinner we would have an amazing home cooked meal. The main courses in order from meals was a 12kg corvina fish, meat and chicken empanadas, steak and choripan, and homemade pasta from scratch. Not to mention all of the side dishes like salad, potatoes and of course wine. The food was spectacular but that was not the best part about it. The best part for me was the people. Each meal there was anywhere from 20-30 people eating and the meals would last for hours on end. Most of the people were older, about the age of my host parents, but they were some of the nicest people you would ever meet. One lady name Stella cooked the best food I have ever tasted, but the coolest thing about her is her dance moves. She is married to this big guy named Rodolfo who just sits down and cracks jokes all day. While it is hard to understand jokes in spanish I did understand when he called me a smurf. So I fired a few word jabs back, and thus began the relentless bantering of the weekend. This was the excitement of Mar del Tuyu, nothing done but everything beautiful.



I also had the opportunity to connect more with my host family and roomates. We see each other all of the time but on a vacation you find new things out about people. For instance, I learned my host mother Alicia is true to her Argentine roots and thinks of rules more as "guidelines". But if you talk to her she will complain about Argentinos never following the rules but if she rolls up to a sign that says no tresspassing she will get out of her car and move it.




Since it was raining it gave me a good amount of time to journal and to think on my trip so far. Just thinking back on everything I am just feeling really blessed. God has been so good, and everything has been provided for. My great host family, great friends, amazing food, and many adventures. My spanish has come a long way and so has my understanding of the Argentine Culture. If you are reading this and have been wanting to travel I say do it. It is a great life experience and I promise you will not regret it.
As of today I am about half-way done with my trip. The next phase will be me traveling down south to Patagonia to a 5 day hike on a trail called the "W". After that I plan to head up north through Salta and into Bolivia where I will continue traveling and will wind up in a place called Cochabamba where I will be volunteering with a hospital for two weeks. The final phase will be me taking a bus up to Peru to hike Machu Pichu with my good buddy Zack, where I will be finishing my trip. Final day in South America=January 15?? So the countdown is 3 weeks and counting for me in Buenos Aires, after that, bring on the road...

Beardless Adventures: Iguazu Falls

Que pasa amigos? I apologize for the lack of blogging but unfortunately my computer was stolen so that disconnected me from the blogging world for a bit. In other news I shaved my beard so now the title says beardless adventures, that is all.
My latest adventure took me 1076 km(thats 669 miles for all my fellow yankees) to a place called Iguazu Falls. It is right in between Brazil and Argentina and the Iguazu river creates the boundry for the two countries. The name "Iguazu" comes from the Guarani(a tribe from Argentina) or Tupi words y [ɨ], meaning "water", and ûasú [waˈsu], meaning "big". Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.[2] The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, who I am convinced insta-pooped his pants when he discovered it. (wikipedia)(yes I just cited wikipedia) The total width of this beast of a waterfall is about 1.7 miles with about 275 separate waterfalls varying in heigth from 200-270 feet.
So you can imagine that after hearing these amazing facts and stories about gods slicing rivers and Europeans soiling themselves that I was pretty pumped for this trip. But first I had to take a grueling 20 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires where I had the entire bus to myself. Cant say that I slept much on that bus ride.
6 movies later I arrived in Puerto Iguazu to a hostel called Che Lagarto. Cool hostel, just watch your stuff. There is not much to do in the town other than walk around and see the tourist shops. Most people are there for one thing only, Iguazu Falls.
When the next day finally came I was up at the crack of dawn waiting in anticipation for my taxi. Once on our way the taxi driver explained to me that the Falls were about 40 minutes away...and to be careful because there were Pumas in the Park. Perfect. Thus began my secret goal of encountering a Puma. So for the record the Park of Iguazu is pretty toursity, there is no getting away from the lines you have to wait in for the entrance, train, and taking photos. But hey that just means its good right? So finally I made it past those lines and into the park and on my way to the Garganta Del Diablo,(The Devils Throat) which is part of the waterfall that has over half of the water flow. The walk to the edge is the coolest thing. You walk on these metal platforms that are built into the river and are built on top of the water fall where you are literally on the edge looking down.



On my walk there I had to keep myself from skipping. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning, or maybe more like a dog waiting to go on a walk, but either way I was pumped. And then I saw it. Well actually first I heard the thunderous roar of thousands of gallons of water pouring over cliffs, but then I saw it. There really is no way to describe it except that it is like Avatar. It was a whole new world for me, but it was real life which means it was way better than Avatar. (and I dont care how good 3D is)

So I spent the next 30 minutes ferociously taking pictures of the waterfall convinced that each picture would be better than the last. Finally I gave up on the pictures and then just tried to soak it in. The idea of thousands upon thousands gallons of water pouring over each second is infalliable to the human mind and watching it seemed to put me in a hyptonic state. When I let go of trying to understand the vastness of the falls I arrived to a place of peace. I realized not being able to understand something does not mean I cant enjoy it for what it is. I think the same goes with my relationship with God. As a human being I cannot begin to understand the vastness of who God is, his ways, and where he came from. If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can.(Francis Chan)
But even though I cant understand everything, I can still sit in his presence and take pleasure in who he is. Just a cool thought.
After a day of exploring and hiking the whole Argentine side I ended with a hike through the jungle to a secluded waterfall. It was an awesome plae and there was even a pool at the bottom to swim in. And even though I did not see a Puma it was still an adventure and whoever you are you have to go there.

Hi my name is Lars and I'm your new friend and Counselor!

So I started this new job. I know, one of my goals was to enjoy my time in Argentina and enjoy not having to work and go to school for the first time in my life, but it's a cool gig. I am back into the camp thing and now help run English Immersion camps in Argentina. The company is called "Colonias de Inmersion al Idioma" and more technical stuff can be found about the company here: (http://www.ecolonias.com/) Anyways I discovered this job on the one website that has been a lifesaver on this trip, Craigslist. In a nutshell the objective of these camps is to make the kids feel they are in are in an English speaking country, which allows them to practice there english and to experience English culture. We get pretty into it, to the point where when they first arrive we issue them their "passports"and they need to go through customs. In customs we literally search their bags for anything Spanish (were talking anything from books to candy) and we take it away from them if its not in english. As you can imagine the kids aren't always thrilled about having their pringles taken, but hey thats life. The camps are usually for 3 days and the whole time we are playing english style games with them, singing songs, and eating english style food(like hamburgers and Shepards pie). And like any good camp there is a theme. This last weekend the theme was hollywood, and the camp centered around the kids making their own movies in English and then watching them together on the final night of camp. It's a good job and I enjoy it. It's definitely tiring working with kids but the end result I think is worth it. Not only do I get paid but I have the opportunity to share with these kids a different culture and to help them with their language development. And I get to work and meet all sorts of really cool people from around the world. I work about 2-3 camps a month on the weekends so it works perfectly with my schedule. So thats a little update on life, stay tuned for more...

Beard Adventures: Tandil

The word Tandil can refer to a spider genus, and a German detergent. But in this instance I am refering to a little town near the rolling hills of Argentina. This little jewel was the perfect getaway from the busy city of Buenos Aires. It was a long weekend in commemoration of the liberator Jose de San Martin. The weekend started off great with my bus running about an hour and a half late. But as always I met a really cool person who helped me out. Her name was Agilda and was actually from that town. She was able to give me some good advice on places to go and even gave me her number and said that if I didn't find a place to stay that I could stay at her place. Saweet! So I arrive five hours later and it is butt cold. Mind you I still don't have a place to stay and am going on like 2 hours of sleep,=adventure!
Tandil is one of those cool towns where you can walk everywhere and see the whole town. And the beautiful thing was that it was actually quiet! I could actually hear myself think and it was great to just be back in nature.
On the outside there really is nothing spectacular about this city but its one of those places with a few hidden secrets. One of these is the great cheese and salami they have.

The other thing they are known for is this rock called
"Piedra Movediza," which translates into unstable rock. Apparently back in the day this huge rock just sort of balanced on the side of a hill and the locals would break beer bottles under it to prove to visitors that it actually moved. Well unfortunately in 1912 this rock ended up rolling down the hill and breaking into pieces. (Now its just known as "rock") But in 2007 a couple of engineering students mounted a similar rock in the same spot as the original. Unfortunately its cemented into the ground so it really isn't that impressive.

See not very impressive...But what Tandil lacked in unstable rocks it made up for it with awesome people! Since Tandil isn't very toursity all the people in the hostel were from Argentina except us. I ended up meeting this really cool guy named Javier who was pretty much our personal tour guide the whole weekend. He was raised in Buenos Aires and is taking a break from traveling around the world. He plans to keep traveling and will probably die on the road because that is where he feels most at home. Cool story. We also met other very cool Argentines and we were invited to an Asado at a hostel.

It was here we experienced true Argentine culture. Delicious savory meat, smooth red wine, and hours of conversation. (FYI, Argentine time is different than say, time in the States, if they say they are starting at 10pm what they really mean is that they won't be eating until 12:30am, so eat a snack)

Around 2am, around the time most North Americans would go to bed, my new Argentine friends said that the party was just gettin started. Tired, but determined to try to keep up with these Argentines, I accompanied them to a dance club. There we danced it up until about 5:00am when I had to bail out to catch my bus at 7am. I am pretty sure they are still dancing. Overall great trip with great people and it turned out to be a quite a cultural experience.
P.S. my beard is coming in pretty nicely...check it out!