Salar de Uyuni... the magic continues...and La Paz

So we have failed you. We haven´t written in the blog for about a month, and for those of you who were living vicariously through us, we are sorry that you´re lives were put on hold for so long. But we have two very good reasons for not writing. 1) We have been having so much fun every single day that we haven´t been able to actually find the time to hit up internet cafes. 2) All they have in Bolivia is dial-up (and in lots of places no internet at all), so it is frustrating enough to check your email, much less coordinate downloading pictures. So here we go.....
We left off with an extremely brief description of Samaipata, a little Bolivian town of 3400 people. It is everything you imagine. Tiny little streets, chickens, horses, cows, tons of motorcycles, a beautiful town square with a really old church, etc. Very quaint. We had planned on spending 3 days here, and after doing El fuerte (the pre-incan ruins), walking around the town all day, and just chilling in our beautiful Bed and Breakfast (run by a Texan!), we thogught we would be ready to go. But then the morning came to pack up and move on and we just couldn´t bring ourselves to leave. The charm of this place was irresistable. We ended up staying 8 days total! One day we went for a hike into Hippy Valley, 4 km away where they have an entire alternative lifestyle going on. They have these awesome little circular buildings, beautiful gardens (Stacen looked for evidence of Marijauna fields but could find none), and little shops where they sell their handicrafts. We continued on down the road to what Stacen had been dreaming about going to for months...a meditation center run by a Buddhist monk! But when we got there, our hearts sank. It had been all but abandoned. Empty buildings lay in overgrown grass and weeds. The Buddhist monk had returned to India becuase he got bored! Needless to say, we both got very sad and left the valley.
Another day we rented a motorcycle and drove 20 km up the road to a path that you can follow to waterfalls! We hiked to our hearts content through the ice cold jungle streams and took turns dashing under the waterfalls. This was like the community pool. There were hundreds of Bolivians there having an awesome time! After a couple of hours Nicole and I decided it was time to head back. But when we were almost all the way back to town, we passed this little dirt road that led straight up a mountain and we couldn´t resist it. We powered all the way up, but then we had to turn around. As Stacen went to pull a 180, the bike slipped and fell on it´s side sue to the loose gravel road. Stacen managed to jump free, but Nicole (who was wearing sandals on a motorcycle!), was not quick enough. Her left sandal got stuck up in the engine, and her bare foot was caught in the moving spokes of the rear tire. We surveyed the damage, and saw...almost all of the skin on her heel had been ripped off, and the wound was covered with dirt and pebbles. Nicole couldn´t even walk. We go to get the bike picked up and heda back for some first-aid, when we realize that the left foot rest has been bent in the fall in such a way that it will not allow the bike to shift gears! We freak out even more, but thanks to the appropriate use of a spare sock and Nicole´s sandal, everything was soon bent back into place. We made it back and Stacen played doctor. He had been given some first-aid stuff from the nurses in the ER, and he actually had a chance to all the gauze, tape and neosporin.
Thus followed our two ¨scrabble days¨. We did absolutely nothing except change Nicole´s bandages, eat, read, watch movies, and play scrabble. We had an awesome time, even though Nicole cheated in the end of the last game and made the word ¨fluftufty¨. When she was able to hobble again, we went to the town zoo! It was more of a petting zoo, with almost all of the animals all running free together. Aside from tons of horses and dogs and cats (and 4 week old kittens!) and donkeys, there were parrots, tucans, pigs, cows, and howler monkeys! The girl monkey climbed onto Nicole and immediately snuggled in (Nicole´s new facebook picture), and shortly thereafter the really big male monkey climbed off a tree when Stacen wasn´t looking and would not get off of him for an hour and a half! They were so cool! And their hair felt so soft and was just like human hair, and their hands were so soft and strong! It was pretty difficult to get them to get off of us when we were done with our tour. One of the highlights of our trip!
It came time to leave and after a final walk through the town, we stopped at a little cafe on the town square for dinner. Before we knew it, some really cool swiss guys met up with us, along with the only other american backpackers we have met down here, 3 girls. So as we drank our chuflays (bolivian liquor made from grapes, mixed with sprite) and our Paceñas (the bolivian national beer), we were able to watch as the town prepared for its elections! There was propoganda everywhere, music blasting, and about 20 teenagers who looked like they were from the jersey shore. It came time for us to leave and we were very sad. We will one day go back to Samaipata, and possibly stay there forever! We weren´t even able to do any of the 4 days guided hikes through the surrounding jungles, so one day we will!
We make it to the restuarant on the main road where the bus is to pick us up. By this point we really need to go to the bathroom, and we figure we will just go on the bus since it is showing up now and buses have been known to leave people behind if they don´t move fast enough. We get on the bus and discover three things. The bus is not air-conditioned, it smells, and there is no bathroom. Nicole looks at Stacen in horror as they take the two remaining seats, and shortly after Stacen opens a window and begins to solve the smell and temperature problem, we turn onto a dirt road. So now we are rhythmically bouncing with full bladders, practically on the verge of tears. Six very very very very long hours later at about 3 in the morning, we arrive in a little village where the bus driver stops and announces that we can all go to the bathroom here if we would like to. There is a mass exodus from the bus, and as we step to the ground we look up and see everyone peeing in a giant semi- circle, on the edge of the light from the bus´s headlights. We were only too happy to join in. And after that, we slept blissfully until 8 am, when we arrived in Sucre, the cultural capital of Bolivia. After refusing about 50 offers for taxis, we found the hostel and met up with Sarah again. She had been in Sucre for 3 days so she gave us a tour of all the cool stuff in the city center. We also went full-out souvenir shopping, but by mid-afternoon Stacen was beginning to get pretty sick from the altitude so we headed back and rested for a few hours. Sucre is at about 8500 feet. We discovered that there are no supermarkets in Bolivia, only markets, so we headed out to the town market to get food for dinner. We were blown away by the sheer amount of food there was. Thousands of stalls stretching for dozens of blocks, all full of indigeous women and quite literally TONS of food. Picture tractor trailers full of corn. There were about 20 of them. There piles of peppers so high that you couldn´t see over it. You name it they had it. And all of it was rotting. It was simple supply and demand. To give you an idea of prices, we went to buy 3 onions, 5 green peppers, some jalapeños, 6 tomatoes, and some spinach from this one vendor who was particularly well stocked. The total came to 4 bolivianos (about 60 cents). We handed her a 10, and she couldn´t make change, so she ended up piling us with food until she could make change. It was a pretty eye-opening experience. If Bolivia would just improve their roads this food could be transported all over the country.....
We made a HUGE salad for dinner, and while preparing it met this Irish guy who invited us to a gringo bar that night. United Kingdom people LOVE going to these foreign countries and getting drunk in places where they don´t have to speak spanish. So we went with him, and discovered how much the irish drink. We had an awesome time, but let´s just say the next morning Stacen had a difficult time getting up in time for the bus so we ended up booking a bus out of Sucre for that night. We spent the day attepting to feel better, and spent about 3 hours on the back porch of the hostel playing 20 questions. Nicole had some real stumpers like Venus and chocolate cake. We make it to the bus station, board the bus, and settle in for what we think is going to be an uneventful 10 hour trip to Tupiza, the site of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid´s demise! However, before we are able to leave Sucre, we hit a snag. It is Semana Santa (Holy week) before Easter, and all of the churches are holding parades throughout the city, which means that about half of the streets have been shut down. Well, no one told the bus company this, so the police rerouted us down this tiny road that was too small for the bus! But we rumbled along anyway, knocking down power lines as we went. At one point, there was a car parked and blocking our progress, so the driver had to get out and knock on all the doors of the surrounding houses until the owner was found and convinced to move the car. A short distance later however, we had to make a 90 degree turn. It took us over half an hour of gentle rocking back and forth before we could do it, creating a LONG line of cars behind us. Highlights include taking off chunks of the buildings next to us, and a very angry police officer who looked and sounded like he was going to kil the driver. But we finally made it out, and hit the open road, heading south into the desert.
It was a terrible bus trip, too cold and the driver was blasting music the whole time. We made it though, dropped off in Tupiza at 3 am with nowhere to go. We have come here because we want to take a 4 day tour of the bolivian desert and Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt flat in the world! We have to leave TODAY, because tomorrow is Easter and the main office is closed. We´re walking along when this random guy gets our attention and starts speaking an odd combination of french and spanish until he realizes that we speak english. His name is Alex, and his wife´s name is Alix. They are from Marseilles, now living in Bristol. They have inside info that they knw for a fact that we can get a tour this morning if we go the 5 of us. We figure why not? We end up crashing in the lobby of a hotel for 4 hours, during which time we started to get to know one another. We end up clicking from the start and know that our tour is going to be amazing! Sure enough, when the tour company opens up at 8, we are there and get a tour booked. We left a few hours later!
Day 1: The 5 of us, our driver, our cook, and our Toyota Land Cruiser leave town and begin a very long trip up into the REAL Bolivian Highlands. It´s everything you can imagine; one lane dirt roads, crazy switchbacks, crazy dropoffs into the abyss, canyons, indigenous communities, llamas, and mines. We break for lunch in a huge pasture and attempt to touch llamas, but they kept scampering away. At this point the altitude was affecting everyone, and if we ever tried to do anything too strenuous, like walk quickly or stand up too fast, we got headaches, stomachaches, very short of breath, and develop a crazy pulse and blood pressure. Slightly unnerving. But in Bolivia they counter these negative effects by chewing coca leaves! And no, you don´t get high, but your mouth does go slightly numb. Stacen has sworn by them ever since. Our driver/guide is very knowledgeable, and answers pretty much every question we have. He tells us that the miners work in terrible conditions and have a life expectancy of about 35. We stop towards the end of the first day and are exploring a series of abandoned buildings. We meet this little boy, and turns out that he lives there. The poverty is something that neither of us have ever seen before. The buildings are all built out of mud , there are a couple hours of electricity in the evening from a generator, there is of course only running water in the places where the tourists go. We spend the night in a tiny little place like this. We try to get to know the kids in the town, kbut they are acting very strangely. First of all, in Bolivia, the vast majority of everyone speaks Quechua as a first language, so it is not un-common to find people that do not speak spanish very well. In fact, everywhere we go we see very simple words misspelled. Well these kids obviously don´t speak spanish very well at all, but deny that they speak another language. They are also quite obviously about 7 years old, but claim they are 12. It´s like they are ashamed of their culture, so we tried to pump them up as much as we could. Stacen decides to ask them about aliens (for those of you who don´t know, bolivia and peru lead the world in UFO sightings. No one knew what an alein was, what a UFO was, or had ever seen anything strange in the sky. Not even the adults. Needless to say, we were in the middle of nowhere, and the people here lived a very simple existence of mining and llama herding only. We wake up in the middle of the night with our hearts pounding. After all, we were sleeping at 14,000 feet. It was a very cold place too, well below freezing.
Day 2: We leave at dawn, shivering as we make our way over the first rise of the hill. We come to el Pueblo Fantasma (Ghost Village), which was built over 500 years ago, and abandoned over a century ago. Many ghost stories and legends surround this place, and while many find it creepy, we loved it! There were all these old stone ruins to walk through, but best of all, were the vizcachas--GIANT CHINCHILLAS! There were hundreds, just hopping around everywhere. They have actually replaced bunnies as Nicole´s favorite animal. We drive on and see all kinds of beautiful mountain desert scenery, and then all of a sudden come up over a hill and see our first volcano, with a giant lagoon of borax in front of it. We keep driving, astounded by the beauty, and all the time talking with the Alexes and blasting anything from regaton to Michael Jackson. These trips are awesome because we learn a ton about France and Canada, and teach about the States. We pass a wild llama mating orgy. We pass a llama with her newborn of only a few hours according to our guide. And we begin to pass lagoons and flamingos everywhere. We cross our first salt flat (tiny, took us about 10 minutes), and stop for lunch at some hot springs! The water was over 100, and the air was about 40. We went on to see more volcanoes and rock formations, before driving through a desert that looked like the moon, then one that looked like Mars, and then, at 16,500 feet, came to geysers and bubbling mud pots! This is no Yellowstone, but it also has zero safety precautions, so it was pretty intimidating and impressive anyway. We are about to arrive to finish the 2nd day when Stacen asks our driver if HE has ever seen a UFO. And he said YES! He told a story about when he was 10 he was sitting on the porch with his family after dinner and clearly saw this very bright red and yellow thing flying around and around the top of a nearby mountain, and after circling it many times in about 2 minutes, suddenly just zipped off up into the sky and the immediately lost sight of it! Stacen asked if he thought it was a weather baloon, but just got a confused look.
Day 3: We left early again, and drove to the Colored Lagoon, which is in the running to be one of the New 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It was red, filled with thousands of flamingos, and had hot springs along the edge. We continued on, and today entered into a world of lagoons, more volcanoes, and sandy deserts. We would go hours without seeing a plant, just sand and rocks. We hiked on a dried lava flow, and watched a smoking volcano. At lunch we fed vizcachas! We hiked the edge of a lagoon, and Sarah spectacularly failed to jump over a mud pit. We drove through another salt flat (an hour this time), and made it to our 3rd night´s accomodations, a ¨hotel¨ made entirely out of salt! It wasn´t nearly as glorious as it sounds, but it was still really cool. We walked around the surrounding hillsides, which interestingly enough are covered with coral and giant cactuses! The coral was millions of years old, and the cactus was hundreds! We looked out on the Salar, excited about the next day, and then spent like 5 hours playing cards that night.
Day 4: We leave before dawn and are on the salar for sunrise. Our guide tells us that in places the salt is 60 feet thick! And it is hard as a rock, and cold! And yes, we all licked it. We drive about 60 miles in, and stop at an ïsland¨for breakfast. We stayed here for hours, hiking more cactus covered coral, seeing one that was 900 years old, and one that had just died, but was 1100 years old. There was an ostrich-looking bird (South America has them too) that we were able to get really close to. We kept on driving, and stopped in a place where all you could see in any direction was salt stretching to the horizon! We stopped at the original salt hotel, which is on the salt flat but was closed for ecological concerns. then we drove through where they were collecting it. On the edge of the Salar there are a couple of towns that survive by selling the salt. So it was pretty sad because the salar had pretty much been destroyed in this part. We got to the edge, where we hit up a crazy tourist stop, and where we discovered that people who live in and around the town of Uyuni hate tourists! Which doesn´t make any sense because that is the only reason their town survives. In the town, after the tour, the vast majority of them treated us with total rudeness. In an internet cafe, Stacen was attempting to translate for a scottish guy who who was trying to say that his internet wasn´t loading gmail. The owner of the cafe got so angry at STACEN that we left. very similar experiences all day. We did not like Uyuni.
We have all afternoon before our bus to La Paz, and we spend hours in this internet cafe attempting to book Stacen´s flight home for his med school interviews. That done, we sat in a cafe all evening and had a pretty ok time. There were no spanish speakers on the bus to La Paz, just a ton of very annoying Israelis, and some English people. And then, as we were driving through the desert at about midnight, Stacen looks out the window and sees a strange object on the ground about 100 yards away. It is long, about 100 feet, shaped like a submarine but slightly more angular, and has 7 circular windows which are covered by different colors of plastic, and illuminated by an internal light source. We had passed it before Stacen could get the camera, but he has to ask: why, in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night where there is no electricity, no surrounding villages, and only mud huts, was there this large bright thing?
We make it to La Paz the next morning, and are immediately blown away by it´s size. It is BIG! And it has tall buildings! It´s a real city, with paved roads and people wearing business suits! We checked into a hostel, took ice-cold showers, and then hit up Tourist Street, where we load up on souvenirs for Stacen to take home. That´s all we did all day, and we had a great time! We bought alpaca sweaters for $8 each, among other very cheap textiles, and Nicole stocked up on jewelry. By this point we are pretty acclimated, so we are actually able to walk up the hills that are everywhere here. In the evening we went to the fanciest restaurant we could find, loaded up, and spent about $25. And the next morning, at 3:30, Stacen caught a taxi for the airport, and 3 flights later was back in DC. Nicole stayed behind with Sarah, hunkering down for 2 weeks of just girl time. Stacen hung out with his parents and sisters and some friends, reunited with his car, took a train to NYC for an interview, drove to Erie, PA for another one, and then flew back to La Paz, arriving two days ago. He met up with Nicole and Sarah at the airport (they had actually gone back to Argentina), and we drove back into the city. We spent the first day doing absolutely nothing except getting caught up on everyone´s travels, then going out to the same fancy restaurant again. Yesterday, we walked over to the presidencial palace (but Evo was nowhere to be seen), and we had an AMAZING TIME feeding pigeons. They saw the birdseed and attacked! No joke. They landed on our hands, arms, shoulders, legs, heads. Nicole screamed a lot, and Sarah took TONS of pictures. We had a blast. We remember how the travel health lady that had given us our immunizations had told us NEVER to touch a single animal down here. We have since touched many dogs, cats, horses, cows, rabbits, parrots, chickens, MONKEYS, vizcachas, and pigeons. HAHA. She also told us not to get into ANY freshwater because there is a snail who will burrow into your skin and cause lots of pain. We have since swam in hot springs, rivers, and stood underwaterfalls. HAHA. Don´t worry we aren´t being stupid, she was just very cautious and tended to apply dangers in one country down here to all the others. Like with Malaria. However, she had only ever travelled to Greece.
We continued walking around just taking it all in, get some bus tickets for Copacabana on the coast of Lake Titicaca, and go to an amazing Indian Restaurant for dinner. But then, Nicole got crazy food poisoning! We weren´t able to leave this morning, had to say goodbye to Sarah (who is heading back home to Canada in a couple of days), and poor Nicole has been in bed all day. But don´t worry, she is feeling better, and Stacen is at least confident that she may eat something tonight. So there you have it. Everything we have been up to. Probably heading to Lake Titicaca tomorrow, and we have a flight to Rurrenabaque, the launching off point for ecotourism in the Bolivian rainforest, on monday afternoon!

Magical Land of Bolivia

From the moment we crossed into the Bolivian border in our overnight bus, everything became magically more beautiful. Paraguay dry Chaco became Bolivia´s lush forests. The three of us were just so happy.

Then… border crossing. Imagine a gross, fat guy calling Nicole ¨nena¨ (baby) over and over again, getting sick pleasure out of screwing with the only two Americans on the bus (while the rest of the world gets to get into Bolivia for free, American pay $135 each!). Somehow , however, between changing from guaranis to bolivianos to dollars from this sketchy guy, we came up $50 short. We were about to be sent back to Paraguay (nooooo!!!!!). Luckily, there were some amazingly nice Swedish and Spanish travelers who completely bailed us out. We can´t wait to pass on the good karma!

So we return to our bus, complete with visa, Nicole grossed out, but so happy to be officially in! We continued to be glued to our windows, enjoying the views and the nice Bolivian people. We saw pigeon eggs being sold! Soon we arrived in Santa Cruz, a wonderful little city filled with many interesting characters. On our first night, the three of us completely splurged on a little café facing the town´s buzzing plaza—a wonderful restaurant that became our home—complete with drinks, delicious meals and dessert. It was about $8 each!!!! We just pretty much kept saying ï love bolvia!!!¨´ over and over. We then strolled down ´´ice cream street´´ a calle happening with familes and six ice cream shops!!! So much fun!! The whole town was alive. The next day we went back to the little café to plan out Bolivia, after eating a delicious lunch at a delightfully cheap local restaurant. The day just flew by!! There is just so much to do in Bolivia. To keep us extra entertained, right outside our window was a crazy indigenous girl, who pretty much just stared at Sarah for three hours after when caught her taking a picture. The thing was, she was crazy! She smiled at everyone, waving her bare breasts around. She finally left, only after coming next to the window and staring at Sarah a bit more. There was also map guy, who enthusiastically showed us old pictures of South America for two days, in hopes we would buy one. We loved him. After sitting and eating, we went and sat and ate at two other places, got ice cream, then sat and drank some tea at other place. We were so happy.

The following day, we returned to Café 24, had some yummy omelets (with our now favorite green special sauce). We planned some more, and in the afternoon took a 4 hour taxi ride to the gorgeous town of Samaipata, with the nicest taxi driver in the world, Bladamir (!!!). We had a made a reservation at apparently sketchy hostel and town, so he drove all over finding us what can only be described as paraiso…. Posadas del Sol. For a little less than $9 a night, we get our own house, complete with kitchen, a magical garden overlooking the Bolivian highlands, the best breakfast in Bolivia, and a super cool owner from… Texas!!! The breakfast includes burritos!!! And no lie, some of the best salsa that has ever touched Nicole´s lips. The following day, the town had a delightful misty rain all day, so the three of us set out on a nice walk with our rain jackets, oohing at the town´s awesomeness, and making a best friend with the friendliest stray dog, Blad. He followed us all the way up in our mini-hike, but then was barked away by some mean dogs when we entered an herbal garden/store wonderland. We then ventured to the local market to get some fruits and veggies from the somewhat sad looking indigenous women, and went to our home to cook some delicious stew. The next sunny day, we all woke up at 7am, pumped. We ate again, the worlds best breakfast, and set off for out 20 km hike to the top of a mountain to visit pre Incan ruins!! Stacen believes alien landing fields, of course. The hike was hard, all uphill, but worth it. The ruins were very cool, and the view breath taking. We returned around 6pm, sun-burnt tired, and feeling so accomplished. Amazingly, we found out that Stacen had been invited to a medical school interview in NYC !!!!! He will be heading back to US in a few weeks!! After the excitement, we finished our stew, played some cards, and went off to a very deep sleep. Soon we leave for the magical Salar de Uyuni…

The Black Hole of Paraguay

Our final day in El Calafate was awesome!! We talked to the woman who ran the hostel and asked her if there was ANYTHING else to do in town except see the glacier (which we had already done), and shop for souvenirs. She told us about a desert hike tothe top of a nearby butte. We excitedly set off, figuring that her directions (¨just follow the river¨) would be sufficient enough to find the trail. However, Latin America got the better of us, and we wound up hopelessly lost scrambling up hills of rubbish strewn dirt and scrubbrush. We emerged out of the canyon into a barrio (for those of you who don´t speak Spanish, a barrio is a poor neighborhood), and so we changed our minds and began checking out the real-estate. Stacen had a very difficult time understanding why everything was so spread out. Each house (a one or two room shack) was set on about an acre of land each. However, since everyone was poor, no one could afford sprinklers, and it was so dry, so it was just an acre of dirt, rocks, and lots of trash. We continued walking through the barrio, talking about urban planning. And Lo and behold, we emerged an hour later to find not only the river once again, but a trail! We set off with fresh spirits, following the canyon up. We passed a dead dog covered in flies, and covered in blood, and tried to figure out how it had died. We eventually climbed down, over, and up, and began a 90 ascent through the desert on something like a 45 degree slope. We startled a jackrabbit (Nicole ooooooed) before making it to the top, where we ate lunch with a beautiful view of the desert, town, glaciated lake, and the andes. We then made our way back down, and only once almost stepped off a cliff. That night, the hostel had 6 jews staying there, and we relished them with our limited vocabulary as they shared their shnitzel with us, while we made our amazing stew that we had made. Later, we helped the night manager with some common english frases and told him about the importance of a website for the hostel.
The next day we walked to a ¨bird sanctuary¨ near the lake, which actually did have some flamingoes and cool geese. However, it was so windy that it was difficult to enjoy the beauty, so we retreated back to the town, finished our soup, and caught a taxi to the airport. The plane left late (good latin american style) but we arrived in Buenos Aires in plenty of time to buy Toblerone at the duty-free shop (it´s actually more like a mall). Going through customs was and interesting experience. Stacen was frisked and when they felt the Toblerone...we weren´t sure if we wound make it on our second flight. But they were easy-going, and we made it to Asuncion, Paraguay. We passed through customs to find out that both our bags had been ¨searched¨ by Aerolineas Argentinas, and Stacen´s brand new pocketknife and his prized headband had been stolen, and a strap on Nicole´s backbacp had been broken!! Stacen was pissed. They then went to the ATM where they took out 1 MILLION Guaranies! (about $200). We caught a taxi and got our first glimpse of the Latin America we had been expecting. It was poor. Looked pretty sketchy and dangerous (it was midnight), and needless to say it was a comfort to arrive safe and sound in the only hostel in Paraguay. There was a cat there and Stacen was happy. Nicole felt isolated, since she was the only girl there.
The next day, we ate our breakfast provided to us (the pre-toasted bread tasted like what we can only imagine a sponge would taste like. We left to walk around Asuncion, the capital, determined that we would have an amazing time, although everyone we had talked to had told us there was nothing to do in Paraguay. We walked the streets, and a couple of hours later, we had to admit defeat. There really was nothing to do. We settled on buying a pirated copy of Alice and Wonderland for 2 dollars, and got really excited about our bum day. We went to the grocery store, stocked up on some food, got back to the hostel...and there were 7 british guys watching soccer. Our spirits not dampened, we went to lunch at a ¨pay by the kilo¨ buffet, came back, and they were still watching soccer. They actually watched it all night long, and we flailed around trying to find a way to keep ourselves occupied. We tried to play cards, but there was this dude in a wheelchair who only spoke german who wheeled up to us as if to have a conversation, but really just felt like staring at us. He was strange, and our bed was right next to his in the dorm. We ended up just going to sleep out of boredom.
The next day at breakfast Stacen met a girl who obviously did not speak spanish. We discovered that she was a canadian chick backpacking by herself! We invited her to have breakfast with us, and found out that she had been volunteering in Buenos Aires for 5 weeks and making her way to Bolivia. We talked for a couple of hours and then parted, struggling for the seconds day to have fun in Paraguay. This time was a little better. We got a new cell phone (ours broke!), and walked around, bought bread from a man with a bread basket on his head walked around the presidencial palance and legislative offices (all surrounded by very sketching looking barrios). A little boy actually told us not to go into a certain part because if we walked any farther they would rob us. We made it back, met up with our new friend Sarah, and attempted to watch Alice and Wonderland again, just to discover that the quality was so bad we couldn´t even watch it! Instead, we planned to spend the next day together, and watched the Inglorious Basterds.
On day 3 of Paraguay, the true fun really began. We caught a bus to the bus station, where we managed to catch another bus to Aregua, an hour outside of the city and on the cover of the Paraguay tourism magazine. The buses in Paraguay are 40 year old Mercedes. Are ridiculously dirty, jolty, and full of very friendly Paraguayans. We finally arrived in Aregua and discovered something about Paraguay. It is a time warp. And they need urban planners. The city was a sprawl that did not need to exist. We started walking around and hit up a couple of art galleries, then got lunch (things became really cheap in Pâraguay). Then we walked the main street, which seels pottery. Quickly discovering that we did not want any pottery, Sarah came up with the genious idea to buy a pot and smash it. We bought the pot (for $1), chased a mother chicken and her 4 chicks down the road, fed a parrot some crackers, and then walked 30 minuites tothe edge of town (why was it so big??) and had an amazing pot smashing session. We chugged some water, and then talked about how the day was over and blah blah. It was then that we realized that only 2 hours had gone by, and it was only 1 in the afternoon. We had toget away from that town, and caught a bouncing bus all the way back to Asuncion, barely managing to escape without bruised tailbones. We spent the evenin planning the rest of our time in Paraguay, and how we were going to take a cargo ship up with the Rio Paraguay to visit the Pantanal, which has over 30 million crocodiles!!! Unfortunately, we discovered that due to the lack of Pâraguay´s infrastructure, there was really no way of touring the area without a trained guide and a TON of dinero. We made our way to the bus station, and passed a dude who yelled out ¨bus to Bolivia¨to us. We all kind of turned and looked at each other, and decided to GET OUT OF PARAGUAY while we could. On a whim, we bought a ticket to Filadelfia, in the Chaco, a deserty savannah in the western 2/3 of Paraguay. Giddly, we boarded the bus with 10 minutes to spare, and were wired, knowing that we were on our way out of Paraguay. 6 hours later, at 5 in the morning, we were deposited on the edge of Filadelfia, with no reservations, or anywhere to go, and we were hungry. We could not figure out why such a small town was soooooo spread out. It took 20 minutes to walk to the center of town. We went to Hotel Florida, a beautiful place with a pool and a restaurant. After eating breakfast, we went out to buy Stacen some pants (in his rush he had forgotten to pack them in Asuncion!). We took out some money, walked the main street, bought our tickets to Santa Cruz, Bolivia for 8 that night, and got back to the hotel, thinking that we had about 3 hours to kill. We discovered that it was still 11 in the morning! We spent the entire afternoon playing rummi, sitting around, swimming in the pool, showering in their pool showers, and pretty much mooching. The strangest thing about Filadelfia was that it was a Mennonite colony, and everyone there spoke german or the native dialect of the indigenous people, guarani. We spoke spanish better than most of them! We actually had a woman ask us if we spoke german, and when we said no, she walked away and didn´t even try spanish! It was such a weird place!
We caught the bus, which 90 minutes later dropped us off in another ¨town¨ to await our connecting bus at 2 am. This place was out of a horror movie. It was very poorly lit. It was not a town. It was 1 abandoned building, a closed up gas station, a shack, and a couple of dirt roads. Music was coming out of the surrounding darkness, and people appeared on the streets out of no where. The customs building that we were to wait in was actually HALF a shack that looked like it had been in the process of remodelling for years. The guy that met us told us to wait on the porch, and gave us a bed with no mattress to sleep on. But here´s the thing. The bugs were everywhere. Crunchy beetles. They got in everything. We could not sit anywhere because the bugs would get on us. Honestly, they were everywhere. The road moved with them. Wild dogs barked at us and wild looking people watched the gringos as we paced back and forth. We held running commentaries on how awesome Hannibal Lector was, had a total freak out with the bugs, and Nicole actually fell asleep on the mattressless bed. Stacen and Sarah encouraged a few passing giant toads to eat all the bugs but none listened. In the end, we had gone crazy, and realized that if we had a volleyball we would have named it Wilson and started talking to it. The bus arrived slightly early, and we got on, forever escaping the clutches of the gaping black hole that is Paraguay........

Kangaroo in the spotlight, the stolen snuggle, and a surprise twist

Our 1 hour flight was scenic and turbulence-free—Stacen HATES turbulence! Needless to say, everyone was much happier to have taken the flight than the bus, which wound through the Andes for 18 grueling hours to travel the same distance. The El Calafate airport is the smallest airport possible. It has 1 gate. It´s also in the middle of the desert. After a 20 minute taxi ride we were finally in town, which is more touristy than the Outer Banks. EVERY store seems to be selling stupid, over-priced tourist trap kind of stuff. The taxi driver was hilarious. He kept trying to sell us his services for the next day, even though renting a car would have been cheaper. When we got to the hostel, he offered us a couple of rooms in his house, for a more expensive price, and seemed genuinely surprised and confused when we turned him down. We got into the hostel and soon realized that it was run by 4 girls who had no idea what they were doing. Lots of sinks were leaky, we weren´t allowed to cook in their kitchen or use their washing machine (a first), and we had a curfew! The plus-side is that everything was very clean, smelled nice, very well-decorated, and when we left, they gave us a parting gift of lavender poupori.
After getting into town, Stacen and Tomer found another Casino. Spurred by the success of Montevideo, they got bold and attempted to play roulette, promptly losing 50 pesos ($12.50) in about 5 minutes. They retreated to the slots, where about 10 minutes later Stacen hit the jackpot! He and Tomer jumped up and down shrieking like little girls as the numbers tallied up to $129 pesos ($32)!!!
We rented a Fiat (which Tomer refused to drive and which Stacen and too willingly took control of), and drove the next morning to the town´s claim to fame—the Perito Moreno Glacier. We had to drive through the desert to get to it, which seemed like an oxymoron, but it was worth it. One of the last advancing glaciers in the world, it was something like 300 square kilometers in size. It fed a huge lake, and created ice bergs every time part of it splintered off. Stacen displayed some uncharacteristic patience, and he was able to get some awesome pictures! That evening we got back and walked around the town, when the 2 lovebirds decided to go out to a romantic dinner at a little bar. They had an amazing time in El Calafate. Sidenote, translations down here are horrendous. We had a menú with a dish called “Esperanza Patagonia” which means something to the effect of “Patagonian hope”, but due to some inter-language word similarities was translated as “Patagonic wait”.
The 4 of us caught the bus early on the next morning, and made the 3 hour trip around the lake to El Chalten, nestled snugly in El Parque Nacional de los Glaciares, the backpacking capital of Argentina. The town of 500 exists solely as an outpost for backpackers stumbling in from the trail to get trekking gear and supplies. We discovered that it is very well organized and were really impressed! We were all set to go out hiking…and then the wind began. We`re talking winds that exceeded 40 mph. On top of that it started to sprinkle, so we decided to bum around the hostel all day, and purchase some supplies to go on a 4 day hike through the backcountry.
We were so excited. We had visions of backpacking glory!! But, we soon realized…. Patagonia is cold. Very cold. And sadly, although it is mind-blowing gorgeous, we had sadly missed the true time to come and spend all the time in the great outdoors (really end of December, January, and February). So the two of us realized it was time to move north to the warmth so we could truly enjoy the outdoors. We also realized that our time with Tomer and Ziv had come to end, with us heading to Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia, while they headed slowly up Argentina. The next day we said goodbye to our traveling partners, and we headed off to our first ¨real¨ hike.
El Chalten is famous for all of its trails and camping possibilities, as well as the epic Fitz Roy mountain. It is a wonderful environment because everyone there is a true nature lover, dirty, and looking for a hike. And for 25 wonderful kilometers, the two of us finally got the great nature we had been dreaming of. We hiked, we climbed, we crossed rivers. We drank glacial water. We scaled a mountain. And then… Fitz Roy. And a glacier. And the most beautiful clear blue glacial lagoon. The sun came out, warming our cold, sweaty bodies. The feeling of accomplishment to finish and climb was the biggest high. On the way back to the town, we saw a woodpecker pecking wood!! We heard horses ney!! So of course, we went out to eat in celebration: pasta, penguin wine (which came out a ceramic penguin from its beak… kinda picture a vampire penguin) and a brownie.
We headed back to our wonderful hostel, filed with ideas on what to do next. The previous night we had talked for about three hours to a super cool Aussie we shared a room with, and decided to make Colombia a priority. Also, we learned about kangaroos, wallabies, and crocodiles!!! Apparently, kangaroos (who can jump over 6 feet) are so plentiful, they are just like deer. So…. instead of ¨deer in the headlights´´ it´s ¨kangaroo in the spotlight´´!!!!! Anyway, we decided to buy a 7:30am bus back to El Calafate to figure out what do to next.
We arrived at 11am, having no idea what to do- we had completely underestimated the hugeness of Argentina. So in a rush of adventure, we wandered around the town with our backpacks, going to internet cafes, the bus station, and to eat. We felt so free! So, after a pizza, we decided to go to Bolivia. Bussing Argentina would take over a week (each leg 25 hours plus), and we would be rushing like crazy. We went to check rates and now are…. Going to PARAGUAY!!! Hee hee we are just so awesomely going with the flow. We both decided that we were ready for something different. As amazing as Argentina is, we wanted to be pushed out of our comfort zones. For the next two nights, we had not even booked a hostel, and spent about an hour finding the perfect little rundown place, where we finally had a private room that would let us snuggle to our hearts content.
So for now, we are off… adventuring, with no idea what awaits us in Paraguay…

The land of fire...and mud

After two flights from Buenos Aires, we began our descent to some of the most breath-taking views we could imagine. We were completely corny, screaming ¨Look! Look! Look!¨ at every beautiful thing we saw. Tierra del Fuego is as magical as one can imagine: snowy mountains, vast forests, lakes, the ocean, penguins all come together. And the two of us cannot feel luckier to have made it to the southernmost city in the world: Ushuaia.
From the beautiful airport, we zipped to our hostel in an incredibly cheap taxi ride ($1). At first, our hostel looked nice, nothing special. Then, the four of us were shown to our ¨room.¨ A beautiful, spanking new APARTMENT! Ziv actually cried with tears of joy. For the same price as all the other hostels, this amazing place gave us a private apartment, with a full kitchen, bathroom and two private bedrooms for an entire week. Already pumped, we decided to rent a car for the week to be able to fully explore this amazing magical land filled with hikes and treks. We went crazy at the supermarket, since we would actually be able to cook real food!! (we eventually would end up going to the supermarket everyday because… why not?!! Foood!!). That night, we ate some yummy stew (because mama Nicole loves stew!) and salad and played Nicole´s favorite childhood game: Continental!!! Stacen, Ziv and Tomer have all been successfully addicted. Imagine two Israelis screaming ¨Quiero puedo!!!!¨ in random messed ways. Awesome.
The next day we set out for a five hour cruise to see penguins (!!), sea lions (!!), and random birds in the wild Antarctic waters. We stood outside in the cold winds, just looking at the amazing icescapes and waters. Then, we got to the island: just feet away from us were wild penguins and sea lions!!! Real ones!!!! The penguins were just plain old cute, but the sea lions were intense. They pretty much just sit there, fight with each other, push themselves off the rocks, get back on the rocks and start the whole thing over again. Our boat then went to a second island filled with hundreds more penguins. Again, surreal is the only way we can describe it. On the way back, we met a couple of guys travelling who told us about a cool glacier to hike up in the afternoon.
The glacier was tiny, but the hike was perfect. Hard and steep, we both felt like we had finally started to do what we set out to. Nature. Beauty. The whole thing. Getting to the top was an achievement. Nicole got so hot she took of her pants and just wore her leggings—then lost her pants!!!! Figures! Only she could lose her black pants in daylight on a trail with nothing but gray rocks.
We hiked around the beautiful Tierra del Fuego National Park the next day, nestled right on the border between Chile and Argentina. The animals there are so used to us nature-lover tourists that there were two wild foxes just chillin´ near the entrance! We walked for several hours around the crystal clear waters filled with thousands of molluscs, and the best rocks to skip that Stacen could ask for. By the afternoon, the day had cleared up, and we got a ride back to our car, but decided to sit and look at the beautiful waters for a while before heading out. This is when Stacen—for almost an hour—showed off his mad skills at skipping rocks. Fulfilling probably his wildest dreams, his impressive skills got so much attention from the tourists that large group of Spaniards stopped to watch him, take pictures and clap.
The following day was bumming around, eating more stew, playing cards, and drinking wine. We actually took a four hour nap! After that, we set out on a goal to go out! Previously in the day, however, Stacen and Tomer had returned, giggling, from the supermarket, laden with beer and cookies. Needless to say, everyone fell asleep, woke up, took showers, and we actually made it to an Irish pub where we all attempted to stay awake for about 45 minutes before finally giving up and just going back home to sleep!
The next day we started slow, drinking lots of green tea and marvelling at being so far south. We finally made it out of the apartment and headed up the road for Emerald Lake. The woman that we got the map from in the entrance gave us some pretty intricate details about how to get to the top, and we were a little confused at first, that is, until we hit the trail. Tierra del Fuego, in its entrance back into winter, was beginning to display some pretty ridiculous weather, including wind, clouds, cold, and rain. The ENTIRE trail was mud! We had to hop from stone to stone for miles all the way up. The bridge was out! We had to sort of scramble through the bushes and walk across the rubble. But it was breathtaking—we walked through the forest that we considered the home of all the elves in the world. We emerged out of the forest and onto the tundra, which during the summer of course is not frozen, but soft and springy, more comfy than a mattress! We had an amazing time plodding the rest of the way up, where we got to the lake, beautiful greenish-blue, and we witnessed a cloud come over the mountain and get sucked into the lake! Ziv by this time had stepped in one too many puddles and her feet were soaked…so of course we built a fire and ate lunch! It started raining but no one cared, we had a blast. The walk down was just as breathtaking, and we chilled the rest of the night.
The next day Stacen turned off the alarm and completely messed up the plans for the huge trek they were going to do that day. So it became another bum day, where we walked around town. They saw one of the giant cruise ships docking and loading up with passengers, and Nicole was struck with a wild idea. She ran up to the entrance to the boat and asked if they needed some extra help, and we would be willing to work just to get to go to Antarctica. Unfortunately, ships have regulations and we were declined.
Our last full day we had come up with an awesome trek to a glacier. We had a map, the car to get us there, and the drive. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side, and it was cloudy windy rainy as we started off. Before arriving to the trail, Stacen took a wrong turn and a pack of 6 wild dogs actually attacked the car, and we literally could not go any further. It was so ridiculous and none of us could stop laughing! The hike was beautiful what we saw, but the ground was flooded and the bridge of course was out as well. We walked through a peat bog 5 feet deep, and Nicole stepped on ground that actually RIPPLED with every step. After attempting in vain to place logs over the river and get over for about 45 minutes, they noticed some other backpackers walk over a bridge about 100 yeards down the trail that they had not seen. They felt stupid. Finally making it over and scaling 2 more little rivers, Nicole was looking down when, the ridiculousness of it all, a branch hit her in her good eye, knocking her contact to the ground, never to be found again. So now Nicole was blind and we had to walk back. We finally made it, only slightly depressed that we had yet to complete a hike. That night we packed up and started making plans for our next destination…El Calafate!

Wallabies, wine, and wonder!

Our first view of Buenos Aires primarily consisted of two five story 1800s era Mississippi River paddle boat casinos. We got off in the port and instead of having the bags come around on a conveyor belt like at the airport, porters came out wit the bags yelling, “Who´s is this?” to the 400 waiting people. We soon discovered the great hidden wonder of Buenos Aires—the prices. A taxi across the city of 14 million cost $4.50. We were quite excited, and after getting to the hostel and meeting up with Tomer and Ziv, we hit the streets for some Buenos Aires nightlife! The nicest taxi driver in the world picked us up, and took us to the center of the action. Dozens of bars lined the streets and plazas, and it took about half an hour just to get a seat somewhere. We had an amazing time spending very little money. We went back to the hostel and marveled at it´s beauty. It was everything our Montevideo hostel could have been and we truly enjoyed spending the other three nights of our visit there.
The next morning, we discovered that breakfast consisted of 2 croissants and dulce de leche. For those of you who don´t know, dulce de leche (incorrectly translated as “milk jam” down here, is similar to Nutella but much sweeter. Needless to say, we both felt gross afterwards and desperately purged our bodies with yogurt and liters upon liters of water. The 4 of us went walking through the city and ended up in a gigantic tourist market where Nicole and I met lots of middle-aged American couples on vacation! We figured it was because Buenos Aires is exactly like Europe, and it really is—impossible to tell a difference from Spain. We walked through the market and Nicole bought many beautiful glass pieces of jewelry before breaking only one earring that night. We bought a liter of what we thought was fresh squeezed orange juice but realized that it was from concentrate a little too late...Stacen was thirsty, and naively trusting the street vendor about the health of his purchase, drank the liter in 15 minutes. Meanwhile, we all went to the most famous cemetery in Buenos Aires, the kind where the coffins are just placed in little tombs. Looking in to see the decaying coffins was only slightly creepy. There was however, a family of stray cats that basked in the sun which made Stacen feel better—that is, until his frail body began to feel the effects of the cheap OJ. Needless to say, he almost fainted and thought he was going to die. He drank water and felt better, and to celebrate, we all went to the zoo!
The Buenos Aires zoo is incredible. Complete with fountains, pigeons, and animals without fences, it was nothing short of a free for all. Pigeons were stealing food from emus, muskrats were stealing food from Galapagos tourtoises, and Stacen and Tomer took extreme pleasure in going up to a cow and feeding it the grass from the expertly manicured grounds. However, the most incredible thing was the wallabies. Hundreds of them hopping around as 3 year olds attempted to catch them. They roamed around just like the pigeons! Not too bad for $7. We headed back home and after stumbling upon a family of stray cats complete with 6 snuggling kittens, made a pit stop in the super market for supplies. Vegetables were 50 cents per pound, and we indulged in spending 8 dollars on 3 bottles of Mendoza wine! We spent an amazing night in the hostel.
The following morning we ate our OWN food for breakfast and were much happier for it. We walked through some beautiful plazas with some of those awesome huge trees, and ended up on Avenida Florida, the central shopping district of the city, no cars allowed. The street vendors spotted Stacen the American instantaneously, and attempted to sell him anything from carriage rides to tango classes. We walked for hours, stopping for a romantic lunch in a café where we spent a grand total of $15. We continued on, walked past the presidential palace, ironically called “The Pink House”, and shopped street vendors the rest of the day. We returned to the hostel to prepare for dinner—at the Hard Rock Café! Drastically over-priced, Nicole received a cold soy burger and says that it wasn´t worth it. Stacen, however, said that it was part of the traveling experience, but she is correct and we will never do it again. We went back to the hostel and hung out all night.
The next day, Nicole and I went to an internet café to do boring grad school, application stuff, when we made a discovery…Nicole has been accepted to the Yale School of Public Health! In pure happiness, Nicole practically was floating through the streets as we made our way to the waterfront, which took a lot longer than expected. After a 2 hour lunch we just turned around and walked back. That night after dinner, we taught Tomer and Ziv how to play Nicole´s favorite card game—continental. That consumed the rest of the night before we had to wake up the next morning and catch our taxi for the airport…After some mix-up as to where exactly the plane was leaving from, we boarded our small little plane and 5 hours later were in Ushuaia………

Uruguay: Lo Bonito, lo Feo, y Un Pescado

After our long bus ride to Uruguay, we set out on a hour long walk to our hostel to give our legs a chance to move around. Our hostel was THE perfect crappy hostel! Located in the beautiful Plaza Independencia across from the Presidential Office, it was complete with peeling walls, leaking roofs, people sleeping until 4pm, broken bathrooms, and a bar.
After dropping off our stuff, we set out to walk the streets of Montevideo, only to discover that on Sundays the city is COMPLETELY dead. No shops are open and everyone pretty much stays in their house sipping their mate and roasting up some parrilla (BBQ). Luckily, we met a nice couple that taught us all about mate (the national drink), and we bought a gourd and yerba. You cannot imagine how surreal it is that everyone in this city walks around sipping their mate. You see people in business suits holding these wonderfully traditional gourds filled with steaming hot water and tea leaves. We calculated that about 1 out of 5 people walking down the street will be drinking it!
We ventured around the Rambla, a path filled with bikers, runners and walkers that goes along all of Montevideo´s beaches. Sadly, we mostly found brown contaminated waters filled with dead fish. On our way back to our hostel, we decided to explore the beautiful and luxurious Radisson hotel, where all the foreign dignitaries stay. We explored the top floors, spas, pool, workout room and... CASINO! Nicole gambled for the first time, winning $170 pesos!!!!!! (about $8.50!!!). It was quite the rush!!! Tomer and Ziv arrived around 9pm, and from there we chilled, ate and went out to check out some night life in the local bar.
The next day we woke up to a busling city, blue skies, and smiles. We walked through Ciudad Vieja (old city), walking through markets, crumbling builidngs, and the famous Mercado del Puerto (Port market), where we ate meat, plus meat plus meat (our vegetarian tummies are still recovering :) ). The four of us continued to walk through the city, made a delicious Israeli salad, and again hit up the casino!!!! We did end up loosing 10 pesos :(.... about 50 cents.
The following morning we left for three amazing days in a tiny beach town called Punta Del Diablo. It has beautiful small beach houses everywhere, shacks, fishermen, and only dirt roads. PERFECT. Our hostel was a little haven for us, with incredibly nice and friendly owners, Argentinians, and other foreigners. That night, we taught out Israeli friends the wonderful card game of Kings.
The true adventure, however, took place the next day. Tomer and Stacen, only talking in caveman voice (quote) ¨We men catch fish, feed women. Spread seed and flourish¨ So the men rented some fishing poles, and the four of set out to the windiest beach imaginable. The sand swept across the beach, cutting our legs-- still, we continued. After two hours of choppy waters, tangled fishing lines, sand in our eyes, cuts from our legs from rocks (Nicole), spirits were down. Then... Tomer yelled: a fish. And goodness was it a FISH!!!!! Over 3 feet long, weighing 20 pounds!!!!! We were all shocked. We had no idea what do!! The cooler and the bucket we had brought simply were not big enough!! so we carried the poor dying fish, running toward the village to get huge bags of ice.
(As a sidenote, we both did have a bit of trouble watching this big, beautiful creature gasping for breath. We truly tried to be as respecful as posible that his life would feed us.)
We got some ice, dumped it in, and the men victoriously carried their beast back to the hostel. They began washing it, gutting in, seasoning it. Stacen built a big, powerful fire. The men felt like MEN.
Then as the hours passed, our fish began to burn, crumble, yet remain raw. Tomer and Stacen got sadder and sadder, Ziv and Nicole got hungrier and hungier. In the end, the beautiful fish lay in the trash, and we dined on rice and salad.
The fish truly got the last laugh.

The next day was truly all about relaxing. We read, sat, and walked around the cool sand dunes and beaches around town. We settled into a relaxed sleep, and left the following morning (after a nice long walk looking at the town´s architecture)to our final stop in Uruguay: Colonia.
The bus ride was awesomely latino: we broke down halfway to Montevideo!!! Impresively, we got new buses in less that an hour and we were on way (after some confusion that left Tomer on one bus and Stacen, Nicole and Ziv outside. Tomer stopped that bus!!). We got to Colinia late that night, and some pizza and headed to bed.
The next day, the 2 of us walked around the picture perfect town, enjoying the cobblestone streets, painted houses, artesan shops, and an extremely friendly cat. We loved it. Before we caught the awesome ferry to Buenos Aires that night (a yacht speeding across Rio de la Plata!!), we brilliantly rented a ... SCOOTER!!!!!!!!!! We were both so happy and had missed our old scooter so much!! It was such an amazing rush. We felt like badasses. We had to return it after one blissful hour, where we headed to the ferry station- which was more like a beautiful airport.
After a fast 75 minutes, we arrived in the gorgeous Buneos Aires, off to new adventures....