Quito, Ecuador: Part Dos

We were happy to be back at our nice hotel, even if it was just for one more night. That evening we had Thai food, which we´d both been craving for a while. That night we made it a mellow night and just watched TV in our room; who knows the next time we´ll be able to watch TV in a nice hotel!

The following day we didn´t have to check out of the hotel until 2pm! Yeah, 2pm! Have you ever heard of such a thing?! We had brunch at Kallari´s, which had amazing organic food. They also had amazing chocolate! After check out we took a cab back to our former hostel. Later that afternoon we walked into the Old Town. First we visited La Compania de Jesus, which was so beautiful! Seven tons of gold were used to gild the walls, ceilings and altars. We weren´t supposed to take pictures, but we snuck a few anyways. Sh, don´t tell! Afterwards we walked to Plaza San Francisco and visited the Monastery of San Francisco. It is the largest colonial structure in Quito, as well as it´s largest church. Katie thought it was cool, but Leif had a bad vibe about it.

The next day we got up early and visited Volcan Pichincha. We took the TeleferiQo, a sky tram that goes up the mountain. We had some great views on the way up, but at the top it was super cloudy, not to mention freezing cold! We waited for a couple hours to see if it would clear up; when it didn’t we headed back down. Later that night we decided to go out! Our first stop was Papillion, which played mostly Latin music. After hearing the few songs we actually knew, we got bored and left. We took a taxi to Matpioshka, the place we had been to before with the unlimited drinks. We started talking to a Canadian, who had just returned from seven weeks in Banos where he was studying yoga and Spanish. While at the bar Katie was handed a business card by a guy in a hat, which read `you are so damned beautiful. I am gay, but I just had to say hi.` He was hot, so we started talking to him and his friends. We all danced until closing, and then shared some cabs to an after hours place. We continued drinking and dancing with our new friends. The cute guy in the hat was trying to convince us to stay in Quito longer. We would have loved to, but we had to catch a plane to La Paz the following evening. Why do we always meet awesome people right before we have to leave a place?! One by one they each left, until we were the last ones standing! We left around 6am; we couldn’t find a registered taxi so we ended up taking a pirate taxi…which you should never do. Oops!

The next day we checked out at 12pm, but didn´t leave the hostel until 5pm. We got to the airport about four hours before our flight, during which we ran into a mother and daughter who were on our Galapagos tour. At the airport Katie started to not feel well. She was weak and light headed, and then began to shake uncontrollably. A medic came over to see her, and gave her an aspirin and told her to rest a lot. Basically what happened was her body reacted negatively to the drastic climate change. We had gone from 50 degrees in Quito to sunny, 80 degree weather in the Galapagos, and then back to chilly Quito. So apparently, this is not good! She finally started to feel better by the layover in Santiago. After Santiago we flew to La Paz, and arrived there around noon.

The Galapagos Islands

We flew from Quito to Baltra Islands in the Galapagos Islands, which is one hour behind Quito, which makes us that much closer to Seattle time! We were greeted at the airport by our guide, Maurice. We took a bus to the dock, where we took a dingy to our yacht, the Galapagos I. While waiting at the dock we had already seen two sea lions and a marine iguana. We arrived on our boat and settled into our cabin. Our cabin consisted of a bunk bed, small night stand and bathroom. Surprisingly, in comparison to our Amazon riverboat cabin it was less spacious and there was no TV! We had lunch in our dining room, where the 16 in our group ate our meals everyday. The meals were three courses, and pretty tasty. That afternoon we had a wet landing onto Santa Rosa Island, where we took a two hour nature walk. Dry landings mean there is a dock to step onto, while wet landings have no dock and we have to step into the surf. We saw tons of wildlife; birds galore, sea lions, iguanas. We were able to get really close to the animals, as they do not feel threatened by humans. This is the closest we’ve ever been to animals in their natural habitat. After the walk we had time to swim and snorkel on the beach, although didn’t see much. We returned to our boat, and later that night we had a cocktail hour where we were introduced to our crew consisting of eight people. After dinner we went to bed early; we had an early wake up call the next morning, so we needed our beauty sleep!

Maurice woke us up at 6:30am the following morning. Breakfast was supposed to be at 7am, but it was delayed so that we could go out and see some penguins and blue footed boobies that were nearby on shore. We went out on a dingy and were able to get fairly close to them. We returned and finally had breakfast around 8am. After breakfast we got back in the dingy and went to Chinese Hat Island, which surprisingly enough looks like a Chinese hat. We walked around the island for a few hours and learned more about the islands and their formation. We went back to the boat for lunch and sun bathing on the roof. After lunch our guide took us out to go snorkeling. This time was MUCH better! We saw tons of colorful fish, penguins, sea lions, huge star fish, and even sharks! But don’t worry, they were all harmless. The best thing we saw was above the water on the rocks where penguins, marine iguanas and blue footed boobies were all mingling harmoniously. We were the only ones in our group with an underwater camera, so everyone was jealous! Back at the boat we changed and got ready for our afternoon landing. About 40 minutes before leaving it started to rain; and this was supposed to be our “dry landing.” We got our raincoats on and headed out anyways to St. Bartolome. We hiked up a lot of stairs and were able to see some amazing views of the surrounding islands. After a couple hours we headed back into the water for more snorkeling. Although this time wasn’t as good as the last, we still saw some beautiful marine life. By the end of the day we were all pretty tired and looking forward to dinner. However, about an hour before dinner the boat got really rocky. Pretty much everyone (except the crew) was nauseous. We managed to get a little bit of food down and then went straight to bed.

The third day our wake up call was at 5:30am! We headed to James Island, which had a black beach. There were tons of marine iguanas here. They all stand so still, you can barely notice them sometimes. We saw a double fur seal, which is really just a sea lion. The difference is in their fur and the shape of their head. We also saw the Galapagos Hawk, which apparently is rare to see. On the walk back we found a scorpion. It was a lot smaller and less scary then you’d think. When we returned to the boat we went whale and dolphin sighting. We saw a few in the distance, but nothing extremely close up. After lunch we went to Jervis Island, which has a red beach. Who knew sand came in so many colors! We saw more sea lions and even some baby ones that were playing together. So adorable! We saw several different kinds of finches, and learned about how the different species evolved on the islands. We also saw lots of pelicans, which are really freaky looking birds! We went out for one last snorkel, but unfortunately the water was kinda murky. Before dinner we had a farewell cocktail, which tasted like bananas. Around this time the boat started getting rocky again, and some people skipped out on dinner. We made it to the dining hall, but didn’t eat a whole lot. Nicole, from Boston took a few bites and then had to be excused. About 3 seconds later we heard her heaving off the side of the boat. The whole room grew silent for a moment, and then we all burst into laughter. She returned briefly and apologized, which just made us laugh harder. Poor girl! After dinner the boat finally docked, so we were feeling a lot better! We had docked in Puerto Ayora for the night, and a bunch of us decided to go into town. About twelve of us went to a bar and had a few drinks. A couple people started dancing, including our guide who was grinding up on one of the girls. It was hilarious! Us, two British girls, two of the crew members and our guide all went to a disco nearby, La Panga. Apparently, our guide is also an architect because he designed the bar. We drank and danced till around 2am when the place closed. We took a $1 water taxi back to our boat.

The last morning we had to wake up early yet again. We had our last meal on our home away from home, and then headed to the Darwin Research Center. Here we saw giant tortoises. We were able to get really close to them too. We learned that the only real way to know a tortoise’s age is to pour acid on their shell and count the rings, which of course you can’t do while they’re still living. After the center we said our goodbyes and left for the airport. We got back into Quito that evening and checked back into our wonderful hotel. The Galapagos Islands were definitely a big highlight of the trip. The weather was amazing; blue skies and clear blue ocean. It is amazing how much diverse wildlife you are able to see, and how close you can get to it. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime!

Quito, Ecuador: Part Uno

We arrived in Quito on the 26th of February. We checked in at our hostel, L’Auberge Inn. The hostel was pretty nice and had hot water! Halleluiah! The one down side was that our room was freezing cold, as was everything else in the city. Quito is a really beautiful city, although it was about 50-60 degrees the whole time we were there, and usually rainy in the afternoons. Quite a change from the 80’s we’ve been accustomed to. In Ecuador they use the US dollar, which was odd but a nice remembrance of home. Plus, we didn’t have to worry about the conversion rate.

We woke up early on the 27th and took a cab to El Panicello aka The Little Loaf. At the top was a really beautiful statue of the Virgin made of some silvery material. She was holding a dragon with a chain. We also got some really nice views of the city and the surrounding mountains. Afterwards, our cab driver dropped us off in the Old Town. There we wandered around Plaza Grande and got something to eat. After lunch we went to the Monastery of Santa Catalina. A guide showed us around and to our surprise took us to the roof of the building. We had to climb up some teeny tiny stairs, manoeuvre under the church bell and then finally hop up onto the roof, where we had some good views of Old Town. According to our Lonely Planet, the roof of the monastery has the strangest view in Quito. It was strange and scary, because there was no kind of security or fencing on the roof, so we could have easily slipped off. After a shaky walk down we wandered to Santo Domingo, and stayed there for a bit. Next we made our way back to our hostel. Along the way we stopped at the Basilica del Voto Nacional, which is known for having the deadliest view in Quito. The church had three towers, two of which you could climb. We went to the shortest one first, and had to cross a rickety old plank to get to it. We climbed some steep ladders and finally made it to the top, where we had to catch our breath. It was pretty scary, although not as scary as we expected. We went to the other tower thinking it wouldn’t be too bad, but boy were we wrong! This second tower was much higher, so it took longer to get to the top. We kept thinking we had reached the top, but there was still more to go. When we were unable to climb anymore, the floor was just some small support beams and thick chicken wire. We noticed that we were able to go out onto the ledge, which is about a 2 by 2 foot area on the very edge of the church. We carefully made our way onto it, and we were sufficiently freaked out! After taking a few pictures, we hurried back inside and made our way back down to firm ground. That night we decided to go to the local cinema and see a movie, 27 Bodas. A cab to and from the theatre, and two movie tickets only cost us $13. You can barely buy one ticket for that price back home!

On the 28th we got up somewhat early and took a bus into Old Town, where we then caught another bus to Mitad del Mundo, otherwise known as the equator. It’s located about an hour outside of the city of Quito. Other than the equator line and a monument, there was also several stores and restaurants. After taking pictures of us straddling the northern and southern hemispheres, we had lunch and a few beers. That was about all there was to see there, so we took a bus back to the city. That night we went to Quito’s Finn McCool’s! We had found a flyer for it the previous day, so we had to make sure we stopped in and have a few pints. The place was alright, but a few too many gringos for our tastes so we went to a nearby club, Matrioshka. We paid $10 each for cover, which got us unlimited drinks for the whole night! The place was pretty dead, but we met a really nice Ecuadorian, Cesar who we talked to all night. They had no tequila, so we kept taking whiskey shots all night. Oh god, why?! We loved the DJ, because he would play anything we wanted. We danced until closing around 2amish. As the bar was closing us, Cesar and the bartender all ended up going to this after hours place. We hopped in Cesar’s car and drove a few minutes to the club. At this point the night got a little fuzzy. We’re pretty sure we were the life of the party; dancing, drinking and talking to everyone! We are so cool!

We woke up the following morning, confused as to exactly how we got home. We may have taken a cab, or possibly Cesar gave us a ride. After two months of being in South America, this is the most drunk we’ve gotten thus far; which is quite a feat for us. This day we were definitely paying for the night before. We donned our hoodies and sunglasses and ate at the restaurant below our hostel. The rest of the day we pretty much lounged around the hostel, trying to get well enough for that night. We got ready and left the hostel around 11pm. We first went to a place called No Bar, which was described to us as a college bar with beer bonging and dancing on the tables. Well, it was a bar. But all we saw were old people dancing to 80s and 90s music. The music was good, but the people weren’t our cup of tea, so we left. We went to another club that had techno and salsa music and stayed there until close. For after hours we went to some place that had taco in its name. We got there and not too many people had arrived yet, but the music was good so we danced. We stayed for about an hour and then got home around 330am.

Saturday morning we were a little hungover again, but not as bad the night before. We checked out at 12pm and made our way to the hotel where our Galapagos Islands tour was to start. Our hotel was the nicest thing we’d seen in months! We each had our own double sized bed, a fridge, a flat screen TV with cable, a 180 view of the city, and hot showers. We were in heaven! We refused to leave our room, so we ordered room service. Twice. At 6pm we had a quick welcome meeting with our group. Afterwards we went right back to our room for some more quality time with the TV.

We woke up early on Sunday morning, as we had to leave our beloved hotel at 7am to get to the airport to catch our flight to the Galapagos!

Iquitos, Peru

We arrived in Iquitos, Peru in the afternoon. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that can not be reached by road. At the dock we met a guy who offered to take us to a hostel. We got in the back of his taxi, which was just a motorbike with a carriage like thing attached in the back; it kinda resembled a motorized Chinese rickshaw. The hostel we stayed at wasn’t the best, but it had a pool and only cost us $20 for 2 nights! After checking in we headed toward the main square, Plaza de Armas. We found an internet café and food, life’s two main essentials. We ate at Ari’s Burgers, which was an American 50’s style restaurant. There was tons of different kinds of food, even milkshakes! As we were finishing our meal an old man and his son were trying to ask if they could have the rest of our food. They were motioning at us from the street, but we tried to ignore them. Finally the kid came in as we were leaving and asked for the leftovers. We said sure, and he put Katie’s pasta in a plastic bag. After dinner Leif made us get ice cream, and we saw the two eating our food from their plastic bag. We feel really sad about their situation, but we have become somewhat callous to beggars everywhere because we see them so much. We walked around the square and saw a pretty purple fountain, and then returned to our hostel.

The next day was pretty much the same as the first. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in the town. In the afternoon we took advantage of the pool and went swimming for a bit. We went to bed early that night, as we had to wake up at 4:30am to catch our 7am flight to Quito, Ecuador.

Leticia, Colombia

Our river boat docked in Tabatinga, Brazil. From there we took a 5 minute taxi to Leticia, Colombia. Our taxi was a car, but the majority of taxis here are motorbikes, which is funny! We checked in at our hotel, which had a TV..with more than one channel..and in English! We were happy! The first thing we did after dropping our bags off was find an Internet café. We were desperate to check our e-mail after a week long boat trip; we felt reconnected to the world! At the Internet café a guy approached us and asked where we were staying, because he owned a guesthouse. We said we already had a place, but he still offered to help us with anything else we needed. We asked about getting boat tickets from Leticia to Iquitos, Peru. He explained it, and it was more complicated than we had anticipated. So, we set up a time to meet him the next day, so that he could help us buy the boat tickets. That night we ate at a nearby restaurant with a cute waiter, and then we just watched TV the rest of the night.

The next morning we got up early to go meet our friend. When we arrived to his guesthouse we discovered he only had room to take one of us, as we would be traveling on a motor bike. Leif stayed behind and was put in charge in case anyone needed anything, and Katie hopped on the back of his red motor bike. They crossed the border back into Brazil and went to a Peruvian restaurant to buy the boat tickets. They made it safely back and found Leif still in tact. He had talked to an old hippie guy at the guesthouse, who said Tabatinga had six shootings in the last week, but Leticia was much safer. Thankfully we had decided to stay on the Colombian side! After getting our tickets we went to a restaurant and got some banana pancakes and all you can drink juice..yum! After lunch, we still needed to get our Brazilian exit stamp in our passports. Since it was a nice day, we figured we could get some exercise and walk back to the Brazilian side. After about 10 minutes we were sweating like whores in church! We crossed the border into Brazil, where there is absolutely no border control at all! We got to Policia Federal only to find out that they have lunch from 12pm-2pm. We got there at 12:15pm. So we kept on walking and found a place to have a few cervazas and watch some Brazilian soap operas. Two hours later we returned to the place, got our stamp in about 2 minutes and then walked back to Colombia! That night we had planned to go out, but it was absolutely pouring and we were tired, so we decided to stay in.

The next day we slept in and had a late breakfast/early lunch. We got BBQ chicken wings for an appetizer, and then even gave us plastic gloves to eat them with. How considerate! We walked around the town and saw what little sights Leticia had to offer. For dinner we found a buffet like place. We had steak, a plateful of food and unlimited juice for $5 total! Amazing!

We got up at 3am the next day and were picked up by a cab at 3:15. He took us to the dock in Tabatinga, where we caught a water taxi to the Peruvian island of Santa Rosa. From Santa Rosa we caught our fast boat to Iquitos, Peru. The ¨fast¨boat took about 10 hours, but we did get a pretty tasty meal on the trip. Our luggage was stored on top of the boat which made us quite nervous, but thankfully it was still there when we arrived at our destination.

River Boat up the Amazon

Our hotel in Manaus drove us to the dock to catch our riverboat up the Amazon River around noon. At the dock we took a water taxi in order to get to the actual boat. On the lower level of the boat it’s all cargo stuff and on the upper level it’s filled with people in hammocks. There were so many, they were practically on top of one another. Thank god we got a cabin! Our cabin was way nicer than expected; it was pretty roomy, with a double bed, dresser, our own bathroom with shower (even though the sink and shower water was basically brown, river water), AC, and a TV. The TV only had one channel all in Portuguese, but without it we would have gone insane! At least we got a chance to get up to date on all the Brazilian soap operas and talk shows. We were also able to watch one bad American film dubbed in Portuguese a day. There was a dining room where we had our meals, but to get there we had to crawl over, under and between people in hammocks and their luggage. On the top level there was an open area, which had a little store where we could buy some food, drinks and toiletries. Everyone else on the boat was a native, we were the only gringos there. So everyone stared at us, especially the little kids! They were probably wondering what the heck we were doing there, because it definitely was not on the regular tourist circuit.

We were on the boat for 5 nights and 6 days. Our days consisted of breakfast at 6am, lunch at 10am, and dinner at 5pm. We had to make sure to get in line at least 20 minutes early, because all the ¨hammock people¨would get there super early. They would only let twelve people at a time in, so we had to wait until each group finished their meal. The food was mostly cold spaghetti, rice and some sort of meat. Between meals we would sleep a lot, watch TV and try to sunbath (weather permitting). At night we’d have a few drinks of rum. We bought a fifth of rum in Manaus for only $2.50!! It was amazing how cheap it was. Since we had to entertain ourselves, after our cocktail hours we would have makeovers, photo shoots and dance parties. We were pretty bored, but the week actually went by fairly fast. We finally arrived in the Triple Frontier (the triborder of Brazil, Peru and Colombia) where we had to go onto another boat just to get to land. It was definitely an interesting and different experience to have, but probably our last time on an Amazonian river boat for a week.

Manaus, Brazil & The Amazon

We arrived in Manaus , located on the Amazon River , around midday. We got picked up by our hostel, who also ran a tour company. Before going to the hostel we stopped by his hostel to find out about tours to the Amazon. We booked one that would leave the following morning. We finally got to our hostel, which was completely empty. It wasn´t the best place, since it was kind of musty. But it did have 3 cats! The one guy who worked there seemed disinterested and spoke no English. We went to bed early, so that we could get up by 7:30 to start our Amazon journey!

We were picked up in a cab at 8am, which dropped us off at the dock. We took a boat across the river and stopped at ‘The Meeting of the Rivers.’ It´s where these 2 rivers meet, and because of the difference in density there is a clear separation between the two. You can see how one side of the river is dark, and the other is much lighter. We put our hands in the water too, and you can feel the difference in temperature too. It was pretty cool. On the other side of the river bank we were picked up by another car, which took us to catch yet another boat. We finally arrived at Juma Lodge around 11am. The dining area is on logs, and as the tide rises the structure moves up. We dropped our stuff off and then took a swim in the river. Which by the way was the same river we had just seen alligators in. Although the owner promised it was safe. After having lunch we packed a few essentials and were taken out into the jungle with a group of 5 other people. Nicole and Keema (sp?!) were from New York City and Washington DC respectively, there was a couple from Switzerland, and there was Joey, who we had actually met in Montevideo! Small world! Our guide was Mateo and his assistant was Paulo. They were both really cool guys, and natives of the Amazon River basin. After an hour boat ride we arrived at our camp site. We set up our hammocks beneath a little hut made of palm tree leaves. We collected fire wood for dinner. We got into a boat to go collect wood from a tree in the middle of the river. Mateo tore off pieces of wood and put it in the boat. We even discovered a baby bat among the fire wood! We returned to camp and started the fire. For dinner we had chicken, rice and some Brazil nuts found in the forest. After dinner we did a night walk in the jungle. We heard lots of animals and saw a huge ass spider! Later we hung out by the fire until bedtime. The hammocks weren´t too bad, but a bed would have been better!

The next day we woke up, and had hard boiled eggs and bread for breakfast. We packed up our stuff and headed out on the river. After an hour or so we arrived at a native’s house, which consisted of three open rooms. After putting our stuff down we went on a jungle walk. It poured rain almost the whole time! It was pretty muddy and slippery; Katie fell twice! There wasn’t much of a trail, and our guides had to take a machete to the plants. We saw lots of plants and ate sugar cane. The walk was about 2 hours long and by the time we finally got back to the house, we were all soaking wet form head to toe! We changed and tried to dry off. The lady of the house made us lunch, and we ate with a bunch of her grand children. After lunch we went back into the river to put out some nets to catch fish for dinner. A couple hours later we retrieved them and found nothing! Thankfully, there were some other nets from earlier which had a few fish in them. That night for dinner we just ate crackers, since neither of us wanted the fish! Later on in the night, we all were dancing with the kids to some American pop music. Also a bit later, our guide offered us some shots of rum! So we were all taking shots with the natives and drinking Caipirinhas made with fresh lemons – and ants! We went to bed around midnight and tried to get comfy in our hammocks!

We were woken up at 5:30am the next day so that we could return to the lodge by 7am for breakfast. After breakfast we went piranha fishing. Leif caught one fish, but unfortunately it wasn’t a piranha so he had to throw it back. Later for lunch there was piranha soup; we both passed though, because it was literally the piranha as whole. And we did not want to eat something with a face! After lunch we said goodbye to Nicole and Keema, and then we went on another jungle trek. Leif really wanted to see some monkeys, so our guide looked extra hard for them. We ended up seeing quite a few, and two different species of them. We also saw an anteater that was climbing trees, tons of birds, lots of ants, spiders and plants. At one point we had to cross a river by walking over a wet, dead tree that was about 30 feet long. We thought it was a joke at first, but he was serious. It was probably the scariest thing we’ve done so far! But thankfully we all made it across alive. When we got back to the lodge we saw a sloth laying on the dock. We thought it was dead, but they told us he was just resting. When it got dark we went into the boat and we went caiman spotting. Mateo caught a three foot female and we all got to hold it in the boat. He also gave us a mini lesson all about caimans. After getting back to the lodge for dinner we were exhausted so we went to bed early.

The last morning we went to an 84 year old man´s house, who showed us about the rubber making process. He makes wallets, shoes and condoms! The condoms do not look comfortable; they are thick and sturdy. He showed us the different sizes of the wood molds, and Mateo commented on the little one saying it was for Japanese people! First he puts a cut in the rubber tree to collect a milky substance that was the rubber. He makes a fire and pours the liquid over the mold, then roasts the mold over the fire. But it was hilarious to see an old man making a rubber condom over a fire. After the rubber demonstration we went and saw a humongous tree, and then returned home. At 2pm we were picked up by boat and made our journey back to the city of Manaus.

We were originally supposed to leave on Friday afternoon, giving us one more night in Manaus. But apparently the boats don´t always leave on time if they aren´t full, so now we are leaving on Saturday afternoon. This was actually a good thing, because we were able to see the city and also got some errands done. We even got to do laundry for the first time! We also got in some shopping, which was great because things are pretty cheap here. We each got something we had been wanting for a while; Leif got a Speedo and Katie got shorts and a tube top. In a few hours we´ll be heading to the dock and hopping on a boat for about a week to go upstream on the Amazon River!

Salvador, Brazil

We arrived in Salvador in late morning. We got a cab to our hostel, and the cab driver dropped us off about 2 blocks away from our hostel. We had to walk up a steep, cobbled stone hill in the 90 degree heat with our 30lb bags. And we got lost for a little bit. It was not fun. We eventually found it, and it was in the back of an art gallery. We found out the private room we requested was unavailable. But they ended up giving us a 4 person dorm for just us two, and we got a discount. So it all worked out! After resting for a little while, we wandered into the city. It´s the most African influenced city in South America. It´s very colorful and lively, with live music everywhere on the streets. We found a restaurant to eat at, where we each got a free Caipirinha. We shared a steak that came with rice and fries. All the meals in Brazil come with rice and fries! After dinner we called it an early night, because we were still recuperating from Carnaval!

We slept in the next day and then headed to the beach. Going to the beach was really nice, as we hadn´t been to one since Punta. Not counting the times in Rio where we danced on it at night or when we landed on it after hang gliding. And PS – they sell everything you could want on the beach: hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, jewelry, food. After sun bathing for a few hours we walked around the city some more. We saw lots of shops with souvenirs and paintings, and hung out in a square sipping on some coconuts.

Our last day in Salvador we checked out at noon, although our flight out wasn´t until 3am that night. We left our bags in the hostel´s storage, and returned to the beach! It was much hotter, but at least we got tan! For lunch we ate at a place on the beach, which had German menus for some reason. Leif thought he ordered a hamburger, but ended up with a slab of chicken and an array of fruit. But it was still tasty! We hung out at the hostel till 8pm, when we got a ride to the airport. At the airport we ate Subway and Bob´s Burgers. Oh, and Bob´s has an amazing chocolate milkshake! We finally checked in at midnight and were able to board our plane at 3am. Eight hours and three plane rides later, we arrived in Manaus!

Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro!!

DAY 1:
We arrived in Rio de Janeiro late morning on January 30th. We were picked up by Martin, a cab driver the hostel had sent for us. During the 30 minutes drive to the hostel he gave us a little Portuguese lesson, and then quizzed us at the end. We arrived at our hostel, Brazil Hostel which is in Lapa, next to the Arcos de Lapa (pretty much party central for Carnaval) We also met the owners, Jorge and Ana. They seemed really nice and the hostel looked like a good place to call home for the week. We ended up sharing a room with 4 Aussie girls. They were pretty nice, even though their crap was all over the room. One of the girls even lived in Seattle for a few months, so she was our favorite. After putting our stuff away we went in search of food. We ran into our taxi driver on the way out and he offered to help us find somewhere. We ended up at Zabor, a per kilo restaurant. He ended up eating lunch with us and we had a pretty good conversation despite the fact he didn’t know much English. We also ordered our first of many Caipirinha´s; and it was nice and strong. We went back to the hostel and met some of our hostel mates. The coolest one was Trish, a girl from England . We decided she was our new best friend! We also met Junior, who works for the hostel and helps plan events and outings. We signed up to go to a futebol (soccer) match that evening. It took place at Maracanã, the largest soccer stadium in the world. Flamengo, the team we were rooting for won! People really get into the game, it´s pretty awesome! We went to bed early that night so that we could rest up for the upcoming festivities.

DAY 2:
We got up semi early so that we could see some of Rio´s sights. We took the tram on top of the Lapa Arches to the neighborhood of Santa Teresa. It was a really cute, hilly area with good views of the city. We visited a museum, a park and a convent. The convent was cool, because they unlocked it especially for us, so we got VIP access! We walked down the extremely steep hills back to Lapa, where we visited the fine arts museum. A lot of it was closed for renovations, but it was free so that’s always good. They even had a replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue, so Katie was very happy. We returned to the hostel for a nap, so that we would be well rested for another outing with Junior and our hostel peeps. We walked to a nearby club, which had free Caipirinha´s until 1am! And we definetly drank our fair share, so that it would last us the whole night. We also got a cool t-shirt with our entry fee that said something about Carnaval on it. We hung out and danced with our hostel people for a while to mostly hip hop music. Deepeka would have loved it! After a while the music changed to samba and a live band performed on a balcony. Katie and Trish were on the dance floor, but when they returned Leif was nowhere to be found. Katie looked up and saw that him and Casper (a Danish dude) had joined the Samba group on stage and they were dancing. Katie ran up to join them! We stayed there for a while and danced with the Samba girl, and Katie even got to wear her head dress for a while. Around 4amish, we walked back to the hostel. IMPORTANT: This will be the earliest we will have returned home after a night of partying!

DAY 3:
The next day we woke up around 1pm. We hired a cab to take us to the statue, Christ the Redeemer and to Sugar Loaf Mountain. He first took us to a place to get a good overall view of the statue, as well as the city. Also at this stop we saw some monkeys! So Leif was really happy! We then chugged up the hill, where we had 30 minutes to see the statue and buy some souvenirs. The statue was huge! And we also got some really nice shots of the cityscape. The driver then dropped us off at the cable car station to get up to the top of Sugar Loaf. Unfortunately, the cable car was $20 each to get to the top, and we didn’t even have enough for one of us to go. So we took some pictures of the mountain itself, found a metro station and went back to the hostel for a nap. Naps were an essential part of our life in Rio during Carnaval! We left the hostel around 9pmish. The second we stepped out we heard drums and music. We looked down the street and saw a crap load of people singing and dancing. We joined them and we all headed toward the Arches. We also bought some beers along the way. At the Arches we ran into someone walking around and selling tequila shots. He had a tray of salt and limes with a fifth of Jose Cuervo in his hand. We bought a shot and toasted to Frank! We were hanging out in the square with all the people, when all of a sudden it began to rain. People scattered like cockroaches to any form of shelter. We ran to a nearby tent to wait out the rain. But the rain didn´t stop everybody; people continued to dance and drink out in the rain. Once the rain subsided, we headed toward a club we had read about. We got a little lost for about 20 minutes, and had to navigate through the flooded streets. We finally found it, and it ended up being right next to the club we went to the previous night. The place was good, but kinda sketchy. There was an upstairs area called a ´dark room´, which is where people went to have sex. We danced a little bit and saw part of a drag show. But the best part of the night was when we met our new Brazilian friends! We stayed with them at the club until closing. Then we headed out into the streets with the rest of the city. Back at the Arches we met some of their other friends, and they invited us to a party that was going to start at 8am! Of course, we could not refuse! The people we met are Fabiano, Thiago, Natalia, Erica and Diego. Later on while we were hanging out and drinking Thiago (the cutest little black, gay man) introduced us to Bruno and Jhones (aka Johnny). Jhones told Thiago he thought Katie was cute, and it wasn´t long before they started making out. The two love birds wandered around for a while, but eventually caught up with everyone else. After having a hot dog, we made our way to Cinelandia Square , where the 8am party was to start. We switched from beer to coconut water and mate (a more sugary version of the Argentina tea). By 9:30am, nothing was happening yet so we decided to make our way home. On the way they showed us a club, where we would meet them at later that night. They walked us to our hostel and we said our goodbyes and see you soons.

DAY 4:
On this day we had planned to go hang gliding at 12pm, but we totally slept through it and slept until 3:30pm. After waking up, having lunch and getting ready we headed toward the club. We paid a little extra to get VIP, which meant we had any drink we wanted for free all night! Definitely can´t get that in Seattle ! We had a few Fanta Vodkas and went in search of our friends. We found them pretty quickly and we all headed to the rooftop, which played our kind of music. Our friends introduced us to a lot more people, because it seems like they know everybody no matter where we go. And everyone loved us and said how beautiful we were! They also introduced us to a new song and dance. The song is called Creu by Mc Creu. Everyone in Rio loves it, and they stop everything they´re doing and dance to it. It was described to us as the 5 speed sex song. There are 5 parts to the song, and each one gets progressively faster. The dance is pretty much humping the air. It´s amazing…and a real workout! It´s our favorite new song! So Google it, learn it, love it! Later in the night it began to rain. Rain was pretty much a constant during our time in Rio , but it sure didn´t stop anyone from having a good time! Katie and Thiago danced in the rain together. Katie dancing in the rain seems to be a common theme on the trip. We noticed that in clubs and on the streets people will just approach someone, ask their name, maybe where they´re from, and then just make out with them. We´re not necessarily saying that we participated in this practice, but it happens. ;) We left the club around 6:30am and walked back in the rain to our hostel to pass out.

DAY 5:
Again we woke up to go hang gliding, but it was raining so we weren´t able to go. We went to a buffet style restaurant for lunch. At a Brazilian buffet the waiters continuously bring you food and you can have as much as you want. We had TONS of pasta, and it was so good! We were such fat kids. The best part was the dessert: a pizza with bananas and cinnamon sugar. After our big meal we took another nap. That night we went to a party called, BITCH, which was recommended to us by our new friends. It was a huge, huge club! I don´t think we´ve ever been to a club that ginormous. We ordered vodka drinks, which we assumed came with some type of mixer. However, it was just a glass of vodka, which was surprisingly cheap. After getting good and buzzed we danced for a while, and then met some people on the balcony. We talked to them for a while, but then decided to ditch them. We went downstairs where they played music we liked. Once again, we danced till dawn! After leaving the club we walked through the streets for a while, beer in hand. We stopped at a stand where Leif got a hamburger and Katie got a hot dog. Yum, street food! Then we went to a square where a live cover band was playing. They played Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park , Snoop Dogg and more. We joined everyone and danced and sang along to the lyrics. We eventually got back to the hostel around 7am.

DAY 6:
Well, you should know the schedule by now: wake up late, eat, take a nap, and go out! Again, we woke up and couldn´t go hang gliding due to the rain. Around 9:30pm we left the hostel to go to the Sambodromo. We lucked out, because this is the one night where it didn´t rain! So, this is where the big parade is. All the schools from Rio show off their best floats and costumes. Each school gets an hour to dazzle the crowd. They each play their own song, which is basically a 3-4 minute song repeated for an hour! The parade was amazing! So colorful, vibrant and elaborate. Everyone was having a great time, dancing, drinking and singing. It went on from 9pm until 6am. It gets a little tiring after a while, but we made it all the way through with a little help from our friends caffeine and hamburgers. We got a Bob´s Burger, which is like the Brazilian Macdonald’s. It was an amazing thing to see and definitely worth while. We followed the hoards of people to the metro and packed into a subway car. We got off at Cinelandia and sat in the square and people watched for a while. Again, we got home around 7am and passed out.

DAY 7:
This morning we were abruptly awoken by our Aussie room mate. She told us that if we wanted to go hang gliding we had to leave in half an hour. We looked at the clock and saw that it was only 9:30am!! With barely 2 hours of sleep, we slowly got up and got ready. We took a taxi with 3 other guys to the hang gliding office. Katie had to sit on Leif´s lap, and she feared for her life. Drivers in Rio are crazy!! We got to the office and signed our lives away. We hopped in a Ranger Rover and went up through the jungle on a big ass mountain. We got into our gear and had a few practice runs with our pilots. Katie went first. As she was flying through the air, her dude got a call on his cell phone. Leif´s pilot was very informative and told him all about the landscape we saw. We both landed safely, but was sort of abrupt. The hang gliding experience was awesome!! Not as scary as sky diving or bungee jumping, but it was well worth the money! And now we can say we hang glided in Rio ! We waited around for the rest of our group to land. We then took a cab back to the hostel, where we took a much needed nap. We contacted Fabiano to find out the 411 for the night, since it was the last night of Carnaval! We planned to meet up with him, Erica and Thiago in Ipanema. We took a metro and then a taxi to get there. He finally found us on the corner and we went to a nearby street party. So many people were out drinking and dancing. We even got to dance in the middle of the street to the Creu song three times within 20 minutes. It was great!! Katie was sad that Johnny didn´t show up, so all our Brazilian friends were on a mission to find her a man. There were a few candidates, but nothing compared to Johnny. Sigh! Around 2amish we all headed to the beach, where a DJ was playing. We went between dancing on the sand, drinking and talking with all our cool, new Brazilian friends. After our very sad farewells we caught a cab with a girl who was friends with Erica, and returned to Lapa around 6am. Approximately one minute after getting out of the cab we run into Johnny, Bruno and their creepy friend. Katie almost passed out from happiness! We pretended not to notice them at first, and waited till they saw us. And once they did Johnny was so ecstatic! The three of them didn´t speak much English and we knew very little Portuguese, so the conversation was quite entertaining. But we finally got on the same page after about 30 minutes. Katie and Johnny hung out for a few more hours, and made plans to see each other later that night. Katie returned to the hostel around 9:45am, and upon arrival saw the hostel owner who gave her a smile and a knowing glance. It is an odd feeling coming home when other people are getting up and having breakfast!

DAY 8:
We woke up the next day around 3pm, and Katie filled Leif in about what her and Johnny ‘talked’ about. We got some food and wandered around the city for one of the last times. Because Carnaval was over, it was really weird to see how empty the streets were. There were no vendors, no music, and no people drinking, dancing and urinating in the street. Oh yeah, the city was basically a urinal for the week. It was awesome for Leif, but Katie did not appreciate it very much, especially wearing flip flops the whole time. Back at the hostel we packed. Leif went to see American Gangster at a nearby movie theater, while Katie met up with Johnny one last time…well, until they get married.

DAY 9:
Our last day in Rio we woke up at 4:30am in order to catch our 6:45 flight to Salvador. We were really sad to leave Rio! We had an amazing time and met some really awesome people. We want to go back every year for Carnaval. New Years in Amsterdam was awesome. New Years in Prague was amazing. But nothing compares to a week long party in Rio! Any time of the day you will find something to do, something to drink, somewhere to dance and someone to make out with. There is so much that happened, this blog doesn’t even do it justice. We love Rio!!!

Iguazu Falls (Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay)

On January 27^th we arrived in Puerto de Iguazu after a 17 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. We took another bus to our hostel for about .50 each. We stayed at Hostel Inn, an ex casino. It was huge, and had a swimming pool! Unfortunately, it was raining! We went to check in but we had a little issue with our reservations. We had accidentally made reservations for February instead of January. We had emailed them a couple weeks back explaining the situation and they replied saying that it was no problem. Apparently there was some kind of communication problem and they through we were just confirming our reservations for February. We showed the guy the emails between us and the hostel. However, because the hostel’s reply didn’t specifically confirm the dates for January he said it was “50% our fault.” Katie was upset and said “it was not my fault, but whatever!” We finally got into our room and everything was okay. That afternoon we took a taxi into town, because it was still raining hard core. We searched forever in the pouring rain for a working ATM, and finally found one! We took refuge in a restaurant and got some food, and then headed back to the hostel. While drinking a beer in the common area, we ran into a Canadian girl we had shared a room with in Buenos Aires! Small world! And she was with two people from the Seattle area. Even smaller world! There were tons of people at the hostel and everyone wanted to check their email, but there were only 3 slow working computers. But we still waited patiently for our turn. Then all of a sudden this Israeli bitch comes out of nowhere trying to cut in line. Katie told her “no, we were first.” But she tried to say she was waiting before us. Katie replied “I don’t think so. We were sitting right there and saw you come up after us.” She then tried to play the pity card, and said she had something really important to check online. And then Katie said she did as well, and just sat down at the computer. The girl tried to argue more, but Katie wasn’t having it. Katie was really out going this day, and told everyone where they could stick it. It was great! After the little confrontation we went to bed early, as we had an early morning the next day.

On the 28^th we left the hostel at 7am and arrived at the Argentina side of the falls around 20 minutes later. First we went to the visitor’s center and walked through the museum. Then we joined a group of people on a jungle tour in a jumbo truck. About an hour later we arrived at a river where we hopped on a speed boat. PS – We were already soaked from the truck ride through the rain. We took the boat through the river and up to the falls. We went under a baby fall and got a little wet. We didn’t think we could get much wetter, but then we went under a massive waterfall (several times) and got completely soaking wet!! Thank god we had a waterproof camera! We were pretty much wet the whole day because it was overcast. We arrived back on shore and took a ferry to an island. We trekked around there for an hour or so, and saw some amazing views of the falls. There weren’t a lot of people on the island, so we were able to eat and pee in peace. We returned to the mainland and went on several larger trails to see small and big waterfalls along the way. In the afternoon we hopped on a train and walked about 20 minutes to get to the top of Devil’s Throat. Devil’s Throat is in the shape of a horseshoe where 14 falls drop 350 feet with tremendous force. It was amazing! It was pretty crazy to be at the top and staring down into the water. At points you weren’t able to see down, because it was so misty. After taking many pictures we headed back to the entrance. Along the way we ran into these little critters, called coatis. They were the cutest things! The best way to describe them is a mix of meerkat/raccoon/anteater. We also saw a Tiger Ant, which is an inch long black ant. It was super creepy! We left the Argentina side of the falls at 4pm and returned to the hostel tired and wet.

On the 29^th we woke up early once again. This time we caught a bus to the Brazilian city, Foz do Iguaçu. We got off at the bus station and started to walk toward Paraguay. We thought we would be able to walk across the border to Ciudad del Este, but after about a 40 minute walk with no border in sight, we decided to hop on a bus. We were kinda nervous crossing the border into Paraguay, because technically we needed a visa to enter into Paraguay. Fortunately, we arrived in the city with no problems. We had read that Ciudad del Este is the Tijuana of South America, and they were right; it’s a dusty, smelly place with tons of people, cars and bikes. And everyone is trying to sell you something. We walked around for a few hours, took some pictures, and then headed back to the safe arms of Brazil! Back at the bus station we took a bus to the Brazilian side of the falls. We didn’t spend as much time on the Brazilian side as we did on the Argentina side. There was less trekking and it was more about the views. It was a good way to get an overall view of the falls. You can really tell how massive they are. The Argentina side was a good place to spend the day and to be one with the falls, while the Brazilian side really allows you to appreciate the falls as a whole. After many a bus ride, we finally retuned to our hostel in Puerto de Iguazu late in the afternoon.

We woke up early on the 30^th and took a taxi to the Brazilian airport, where we would be catching a plane to Rio de Janeiro for Carnaval! Our time in the falls was amazing and was definitely an experience of a lifetime, but we were also excited to return to a big city…especially one where the biggest party in the world is held!

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

After Montevideo we took a bus headed west to Colonia del Sacramento. We left Montevideo late in the morning and arrived in Colonia around 2pm. The bus took forever because they were picking people up and dropping people off, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We had no idea where they were going to or where they came from. When we finally arrived we walked to our hostel, El Viajero. It was pretty nice, clean and a cool common room with TV. After settling in we walked around the teeny, tiny town. It's very quaint; filled with windy, cobbled streets. Next we went to a few museums. We bought a ticket for less then $1 that got us into about 7 museums in the town. Then we climbed to the top of the lighthouse to get some good views of the city and of Rio de la Plata, which separates Buenos Aires and Colonia. It was SO windy up there! In fact, pretty much everywhere we've been to in Uruguay is windy! Thankfully we didn't fall off, and we made it to dinner. We ate in an old tower by the water. Unknowingly, we ordered a pretty expensive bottle of wine. Overall our meal was good, but pretty expensive!! We walked back to the hostel and watched TV for a bit before going to bed.

The following day we were leaving at 5pm. We checked out of the hostel at 11am and left our bags in the hostel's garage. We walked through the city some more to kill time before catching our boat. There wasn't a whole lot to see, we could walk through the whole town in about an hour. We ate our last meal in Uruguay and went to catch our boat to Buenos Aires!

At the ferry terminal it took forever to get through customs and stuff! Leif also had to pay about $25 to leave the country, because he didn't keep some sheet we got when we entered Uruguay. We were never told to hold onto it, but thankfully I did. Our boat ended up being 30 minutes late. But at least we got into Buenos Aires by 7pm to catch our overnight bus to Iguazu Falls. We needed to catch a cab to the bus terminal, but we only had Uruguay pesos left over. Thankfully the driver accepted USD (which Leif's dad gave him before we left)! After buying some apple gatorade we hopped on our overnight bus. About 17 hours later (which included a viewing of SuperBad!) we were in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina!

Montevideo Part Dos

So after we wrote our blog we went to go get some food on the main drag downtown and then to our surprise we saw all these people setting something up. We asked and discovered it was the begining of Carnaval for Montevideo. So we decided to grab some food at this pizza place and had a few beers and watched the parade start. Which reminds us, when you order a beer it only comes in 40oz size; there is no small beer. It's awesome! Then we went out and joined the people for about two hours. They had some nice floats, costumes, there were singers, dancers, a latin rapper that all the teenyboppers seemes to know. The kids were running wild, the parents literally had their newborns and mate in hand. It was cool to see Carnaval get started out here but after a while it all bled together. This was just a precurser to what we will see in Rio!!! At least we got some good pictures because in Rio we won´t be bringing the digital camera just some disposable cameras, so who knows how they will turn out and hopefully someone wont steal them like they did in Amsterdamn for new years a few years back!

Montevideo, Uruguay

Hola from Montevideo! Well, this is our last night here and then it´s off to Colonia del Sacramento. This blog won´t be as exciting as most, since we kinda came to the city during an off time. We missed out on the nightlife because we were here Monday through Thursday, and not a whole lot is going on. Plus, the city is kinda deadish because Montevideoans go to the beach towns during summer (like Punta del Este, where we just came from).

Okay, we arrived by bus Monday night. Our hostel is located in Ciudad Viaje (the old town), which is close to all the sites and lots of bars and restaursnts. The hostel was pretty nice and fairly clean. However, we came to find out we're in a 6bed room/storage unit. The hostel workers come in and out during all hours to get mattresses and linens. It´s kinda annoying. We ventured out to find some comida on our first night. Barely five minutes into Bartolome Mitre (street with lots of bars and restaurants) we were acosted by a preteen. We gave him 10 pesos (.50 cent) and tried to go on our way. But he kept trying to give us this book. We said no, no gracias, but he was very persistent. We finally took it to get him off our back. A block away we looked at it and discovered it was a daily planner from 1991. How useful!! Before we got to the restaurant several more kids came up to us asking for ¨moneda, moneda.¨ The kids are very persistent and travel in packs. Before we were scared of stray dogs, now we're wary of roaming children. There are like 5, 6, 7 years olds wandering the streets alone begging for money. And they´ll come right up to you and pull on your clothes. It´s really sad, but you have to become immune to it, because you can´t give money to everyone.

We did a city tour provided by our hostel. The guide spoke English pretty well, but wasn´t always so sure of herself. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we got to see a lot of the city we probably wouln´t have otherwise. We saw the first public space, the first church, the highest building in South America in the 1920´s, the futbol stadium where Uruguay won the 1st World Cup, the president´s house (he lives among the people, and he doesn´t even live in the richest part of town). We drove along what we thought was a beach, but it was brown. Come to find out, it´s a huge river, you can´t even see the other side! It was kinda odd. We also learned the origin of the name Montevideo. It means the 6th mountain you see traveling from east to west. The Spanish named it that after coming here from Spain. Also, the originator of tango actually came from Uruguay, and they have the documents to prove it! So that´s a little fun fact, considering Buenos Aires seems to have the monopoly on the tango scene.

The majority of our 4 days were spent sleeping until noon, walking around the city, and visiting some museums. All the museums here are free! And also pretty relaxed on security. We saw some interesting archaeological artifacts from a long time ago. We also visted a museum that housed lots of furniture, clothes, and other things that belonged to the wealthy Uruguayans during the late 19th century - early 20th century.

All in all, Montevideo was a charming and interesting city to visit; kind of a smaller Buenos Aires. However, it would have been nice to be here on the weekend for the nightlife. But I guess it´s nice to have a break every once and a while. Tomorrow we´re off for one more night in Uruguay. Then we´ll be on an overnight bus to Iguazu Falls, which should be amazing!!

Punta del Este, Uruguay

We departed Buenos Aires by boat, first class! We arrived in Colonia del Sacramento and transfered to a bus. About 5 hours later we arrived in the beach town of Punta del Este. It's a really nice, but expensive beach town. It's famous for its beaches and its discos. Our hostel, Backpackers de la Barra, was a little out of the main city, BUT it was closer to all the cool clubs. After checking in we went to Rex's, which advertised the best chivito in town! Chivito = steak sandwich. Order it completo and you get ham, cheese, egg, lettuce and tomato. It was the best..and first.. steak sandwich ever! That night our hostel was very lively, with everyone drinking and getting ready to hit the town on a Saturday night. Around 2am we left and walked 2 blocks to Crobar. We had a flyer that said free entrance for 2 people. But the doorman said that was wrong and we had to pay. But the manager came up, and reluctantly let us in. Yay! The club had a courtyard in the center and was surrounded by 3 different rooms. We stayed mostly in the room that played pop/top40 like music. And the DJ played some really good songs!!! The room had a window looking outside, so as we were dancing we could see the sun coming up. The last few songs all the guys were scrambling for girls to take home..it was kinda scary/funny. We walked home in the bright early morning and ran into our Aussie roommates, who were coming home at the same time.

The next day after waking up around 2:30pm, we spent the rest of the day at the beach. The beaches are filled with really fine sand, which makes it hard to get off your body! Surprisingly, it got really cold around 6pm so we headed back to the hostel. That night we returned to our favorite place, Rex's, and got another chivito!

Our last day there we checked out and then spent a few hours at the beach. We were in the sun for about 5 hours, so you can imagine we're a little red! We thought Argentines loved their mate, but we think Uruguayans love it even more! People carry their cup, thermos and tea around with them everywhere! The beach, the bus station, walking down the street, etc. Around 5pm, we walked to the bus station and caught our bus to Montevideo.

PS: We love apple Gatorade! It's everywhere here!

Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning of Saturday, the 12th of January after a 14 hour bus ride from Mendoza. The bus was actually prettty comfy! Our hostel, Che Legarto was really cool! It had its own bar and restaurant, free internet, kitchen, common room with TV. We shared a room with a Canadian who was working at the hostel bar.

Since it was a Saturday in BsAs, we had to go out! We prefunked a little until 1:30am, then we walked to a club nearby. It was huge and in a really cool building; it looked like a ballroom in a palace or something. Unfortuately, drinks were expensive and it was trance all night! So we decided to go to another club, Amerika. it was about 40 pesos (12USD) to get in, BUT you got free drinks all night!! Yes, FREE...ALL NIGHT! Not only that, the bartenders are not stingy with the liquor. We danced on the second floor which had pop mixed with electronic for the beginning of the night. Around 3amish we headed downstairs to the main dancefloor. All of a sudden from the ceiling above foam started to fall! And it kept coming throughout the night; at one point the bubbles reached our chests. It was amazing! Just like dancing in a huge bubble bath with thousands of strangers! We finally left around 7am, and thankfully caught a cab home despite being soaking wet!

Our second day we visted Recoleta Cemetery, which has Evita's final resting place. The cemetery was really cool. Next we went to the Bellas Artes museum, which had lots of international artists, as well as Latin American. Later that night we went to this bar, because we thought they had karaoke. But no such luck, just some drag queens doing a comedy act. We talked to an Israeli guy who didn't understand what was going on either. It closed a little after 2am, and on our walk back to the hostel we ran into a local. We started talking to him, and we ended up buying some cervazas and going back to his place. He showed us some photo albums from past trips to Bolivia. Between our Spanish and his English we got along pretty well. We stayed until 6:30 and then caught a cab home.

On the third day it was ridiculously hot!!! 100 degrees and humid! So we didn't do a whole lot that day. Slept til 3pm and tried to walk around a bit, but it was miserable. At night was better and we walked to get some pizza.

The fourth day was much better! We wandered through Av Florida, the main pedestrian street with lots of cafes, restaurants, street performers and shops. At night we went to a tango show. Which was incredible! The footwork is so intricate. They also breaked up the tango dances with singers, a live band and a folklore style musicians. One of the coolest things was when a lady dressed in a white gown on a balcony sang Don't Cry for Me Argentina in Spanish. Everyone at our table was drunk; they kept ordering bottle after bottle of wine! We went back to the hostel around 12:30am, and decided to hang out in the bar for a while and drink a 1 1/2 litre of Budweiser. About an hour later it started to rain. Then came the thunder and lightning, and more rain! The bar area flooded...which sucked...excpet we got a free pitcher of beer! It settled down for a bit, and then flooded again. So, more free beer!

The fifth day we went to the Latinoamericano Art Museum, which houses the biggest collection of Latin American art in the world. Afterwards, we went to the Evita Museum. There we saw some of her clothes, newspapers clippings, television footage of her speech and her death mask. Later on we also saw the Casa Rosada, where she stood on the balcony to give her speech.

The sixth day we mostly just ran some errands. We also went to a mate bar, where we tried mate for the first time. FYI: Mate is a type of tea that pretty much everyone drinks here! It was pretty good. That night we went to the Roxy Club, where a promotion group, Club69 was having a party. Several people from our hostel were also going. The flyer said it's "the most amusing electronic party!" The dancers were dressed like club kids from the movie Party Monster. There were break dancers and gogo dancers. Around 4am this big drag queen in a red dress came out with a cake, and all the dancers sang happy birthday. Then they passed out the cake to the crowd. We made our way to the front and got the last piece of cake to share! Yum!! We were kinda getting tired, when all of a sudden a man and woman came on stage. They were dancing around, and eventually the chick started to strip. We saw everything! Everyone (aka guys) were taking pictures. It was great! After the strip show (around 6:30am) we decided to call it a night! oh and PS - all the clubs in Buenos Aires smell like weed!

The morning after Club69 (the seventh day) we had to wake up early and change from our 8 person room to a 20 person dorm. Boo! But at least it was only for one night. Our last day in BsAs we went to a neighborhood called La Boca. There were really colorful houses and tango dancers in the streets. That night we decided to go to bed early, because we had to wake up the next day at 6:15am (which is normally when we are stumbling home!) to catch a boat!

Thus far, Buenos Aires has turned out to be our favorite city! It's cheap, good food, nice people, great bars and awesome nightlife! If you ever get a chance, come here...and take us!!

Mendoza, Argentina

Hola!! So we arrived in Mendoza, Argentina (the heart of Argentina's wine country, with over 600 wineries) after a 6 hour bus ride from Santiago, Chile, which was actually quite pleasant. Two hours of which were spent at the border, but we finally arrived in late afternoon. We took a cab to our hostel, Ruca Potu. It's run by a family; the dad is this big, jolly Argentinian, his chain smoking wife, and two chubby kids. The best part of the hostel was the free wine!! Yes, FREE wine! A barrel was set up in the kitchen, and you could fill up your glass any time of the day or night. So of course we took advantage of that!

The first thing we did after checking in was find some comida! We walked into town and found a cute Italian style resaturant. We had appetizers, yummy pasta with pesto, and a bottle of wine..all for just $18USD!! It was awesome; we've never been so full! Thankfully the walk back to the hostel helped us to digest. The second we got back we started getting ready, and drinking our free vino. We went to this club that had a drag show at 2am! Oh yeah, people don't start eating dinner until like 10pm, and don't go to bars and clubs till like 1 or 2am, and don't leave until 6 or 7am, cuz that's when the after parties start. The drag show was really fun, including artists such as Madonna. Afterwards there was dancing to really good music, a mix of electronic and top 40ish tunes. And that's really hard to find, so we were enjoying it! We even got to hear Gimme More by Britney Spears! Woohoo! We took a cab back to the hostel around 6am, but unfortunately didn't have a small enough bill for the driver. So we stumbled into our 12 person dorm, and rummaged through our bags to find some dinero. We finally found a 10 peso and handed it over.

We slept in the next day, and then went out to explore the city. But not before getting a morning glass of red wine. It was a really pretty, cute town; and pretty much everything is in walking distance. We saw an archaelogical museum, a park and just wandered the streets. For dinner we each had a 40oz of Stella. Leif had a HUGE sandwich while I had two teeny, tiny empanadas! We got back to the hostel, got ready and started drinking again. We planned to go out to this club, but ended up talking to this pothead Pharmacist from Ireland and drinking wine until 6:30 in the morning! Oh well!

Three hours after passing out, we woke up, packed our stuff and went on several tours of wineries. Without time for breakfast, our hostel owner took us around in his van to a bunch of wineries. In total, we had about 6 glasses of wine, a glass of champagne, and a shot of absinthe! A very hearty breaktfast!!

We killed a couple hours at a really cool gas station, complete with tons of food and an internet cafe. We walked to the bus station to catch our overnight bus to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, it was late and we ended up waiting around for like 2 hours. The bus was actually quite comfy, with good food and a game of bingo! About 14 hours later we arrived in Buenos Aires!! So stay tuned for a fun filled week in BsAs!!

Easter Island

Hello all, it´s been a little while since we last blogged but we are trying! So our flight to Easter Island was delayed like 5 hours which sucked because we lost half the day BUT one of the Amazing Race finalists was on our flight! The island looked just like Hawaii. There was only one teeny tiny town. The total population of the island is barely over 2000. We kept seeing the same people over and over again. Our hostel was nice and we lucked out and got a private room, eventhough we paid for a 4 bed room. The room was a bit musty and hot inside but we survived. Just like in Santiago there are stray dogs everywhere. The first night we went out to eat at a restaurant by the water and it was expensive like everything else on the island. We then went to the Aloha Pub and had some beer. On our walk home we were attacked by dogs. It was scary!! There were gangs of dogs all around us, and they kept barking. They kept getting closer to us, and so we started to run. The next day, we learned that if dogs start barking at you, DON'T RUN, cuz then they'll chase you!We were afraid of the dogs for the rest of the trip there!

We decided to rent a car and guess what....it was a stick shift. Neither of us could really drive one well, but I (Leif) got in the swing of things. We got a map of the island and drove around stopping to look at all the Moai. It was amazing. They were huge and it was hard to think how they made such things back in the day. The roads were horrible. They were dirt roads on hills and had a lot of pot holes and rocks in the way, so it made for a fun adventure. We stalled a few times. Later on in the day I taught Katie to drive a stick shift. At our stop at the 15 rowed Moai it started to pour!! It was nice because all the tourists left and we just ran out there with blankets on our heads and took some amazing photos. Then on our way home there was a road that was slippery like ice but it was just mud. We ended our day going to the beach. While we were swimming we were able to see the Moai, it was unbelievable.

Everyone on the island was laid back and we enjoyed the rest of the time. We also saw this movie called Rapa Nui that was produced by Kevin Costner. On our last night we had the best empanada ever. We also went to this French restaurant to get some dessert and beer and when we ordered from a French bastard he took our menus away. He said that he served food and kicked us out but not before asking if we came from the moon. He was a jerk but in retrospect it was funny. Then we bought our own beer and some candy and watched the sunset.

So we saw the Amazing Race guy at the beach but didnt want to bother him. Then he was on our flight back to Santiago and he was standing behind us. We started talking to him and he actually went to Roosevelt High School. Talked to us about the Seattle school system. He also gave us tips about how to get onto the amazing race. It was pretty funny.

Ok until next time

Katie and Leif

Santiago...

Hola amigos...we are currently in Santiago where it is HOT AS HELL!! be jealous that we are going to come home dark. We left you all in Valpo and we were adaptorless, and it was scarry because we needed to charge our camera to have pictures obviously. The owner of our hostel told us of a place that should sell them. Thankfully they did so we wil have pictures of Chile to show everyone when we get back. After we had a sigh of relief we had to find the bus station in the heat with 30 pound bags on. Eventually we just grabbed a cab and then got a bus ticket to Santiago, but had to wait for two hours. While waiting there a little kid was casing the joint, and we were scared that he was trying to rob us. We also talked to an old Chilean woman. who said we were beautiful and asked if we were brother and sister. We finally got on the bus with no airconditioning, and was the ghettoist bus of the bunch. Oh well, we finally got into Santiago around 5pm. A young guy on the bus probably could tell we were confused and asked if we needed help. He helped us get our metro passes (BIP cards) and told us which line to take to our hostel. Once we got off the metro and went above ground, ANOTHER helpful Chilean (this time an older gentleman) helped us find our way to our hostel, and gave us a brief history lesson of the city along the way. Our hostel is in a really trendy part of town, with lots of bars and restaurants; it´s like the Belltown of Santiago!
Today we did a walking tour. We visited some museums, the Presidential Palace, several squares and parks. After our first museum visit, we were sitting at a bench park, when all of a sudden we were approached by gypsies! They´re tiny little things, but were pretty menacing and kept wanting money and to tell our fortunes. We said No gracias! and got outta there!
That´s all for now...more to come!

New Years in Valparaiso, Chile

hey all, we spent new years eve in valpo chile on the coast two hours west on santiago. we watched the biggest fireworks display in the world it was awesome! we watched them from our hostel which over looks the bay. we then went to the town square in the middle of the city where they had live music and everyone was dancing and drinking! then we met up with some of our fellow hostel friends at this bar and danced there for another hour or so then finally made it back home and ate some food and went to bed. today we went to the beach and got some sun! katies still pale though haha...but the water was pretty cold. we are heading to santigo tomorrow...ill write soon...