Alive, Well and Loving life

wow... i´m here... its feels like its 95 degrees. the humidity is really severe, but, i´m having a blast so far. Except, that i´m really, really hung over. But we´ll get to that later.

please excuse my lack of capitilization, horrible punctuation, and spelling errors as i don´t know how to properly use a spanish keyboard and the blog site is all in espanol as well. its completely irritating. you guys all know how amazing my grammer and spelling are. please visualize a flawless, beautifully written post... start....now..


i´m keeping a written journal.. here are some of the entries from the last few days

1-9-2007 430pm
i´m sitting in the airport at dulles sipping on an ice cold stella artois. today is the day it all begins. this trip has definitely not set in yet. i just changed some dollars into argentinian money. the exchange rate is 3 to 1... good stuff.

1-9-2007 634 pm sitting on the plane.. Heading to Sao Paulo Brazil and then onto Argentina


either there are a lot of asian people in brazil, or i´m on the wrong plane.
i´ve now had many stellas and spent a good portion of the last few hours arguing with a san diego chargers fan about how much better the ravens are. i have just begin to read the motorcycle diaries by che guevara. its the diary of che as he travels through south america with a friend in the early 1950s on a beat up motorcycle. its a great read, perfect for the start of my trip. che eventually ended up as a cuban revolutionary and was killed by the CIA. i´m hoping not to emulate that part of his life... however, his journey through SA is pretty damn amazing. Although.......Cuba is supposed to be beautiful. Will it suffice if I just go there when Castro dies?

1-10-2007 2pm
ok... its hit me. i´m sitting at bar.. drinking a gigantic cervesa, eating carne empanadas. i checked in the hostel, already met 15 crazy australians (i´m going to be hanging with Aussies for the entire trip. they are absoloutly everywhere), and just walked down nuevo de julio ( this is the main strip in BA. The hostel is located in the heart of the downtown area).

i don´t have anything to do but enjoy and learn about the culture here. its a truly empowering, fantastic feeling. my job for a very, very long time is to experience life. i´m completely blown away. the magnitude of what i´m doing has has just hit me like a ton of bricks. i literally can´t stop smiling.

1-11-2007
530 pm

milhouse hostel is really cool and has a great reputation among the travelers. its huge, the people are very friendly, they have a travel agency in the basement, breakfast is included, the place is spotless, and security is tight. So far i´ve felt very safe here.

last night was a big, big, big night. i got home at about 6am. i ended up going out to dinner and drinks with a huge group of independent travelers from the hostel. Surprising there were three americans in the group. the other 4 were aussies. We walked to San telmo square at about 9pm.

(click here for some history and pix of the neighborhood )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Telmo

The restaurant we went to was really good. The waiter ran around like a madman waving his hands the whole time. he was a cartoon character. The people down here are very animated and very emotional. (we saw 10 couples openly making out on the street last night) For dinner, we ordered 4 bottles of arentinian red wine from the mendoza region and very large, very tasty, steaks. we also ordered appetizers, desert, salads. The the total bill per person was 8 bucks. its awesome how far our money goes down here. Did i mention that the steak was incredible?

sidenote... people in argentina dont go out to dinner until 10 pm. we got there at 9 and the place was empty. by the time we left there was a line out the door. argentinians don´t go to the clubs until 2am, and they dont leave the clubs until 8am. i don´t know how in the hell these people get up and work everyday.

After dinner we bounced around for a while and eventually settled on a fine irish pub. i drank to much and paid for it today. i woke up at 1pm sweating (no AC in the rooms)with the feeling that someone knocked me in the head with a lead pipe.

From what I´ve heard from the Aussies.... Macchu Pichu, Bolivia, and Mendoza are amazing. Everyone seems to have great distain for Chile and their people. I think I´m going to cut Chile and go to Bolivia instead (bolivia is supposed to be full of adventure tours in the amazon, you can swim with dolphins, etc ).

The buzz in the hostel is all about Brazil and Carnival. Everyones in the process of getting visas. I´m going to get one next week. Most people here are going to Rio for Carnival. I´ve heard some nighmarish, hellish stories about Rio. I think that I´m going to Salvador instead. Thats where all the local Brazilians go. Its alot farther though. I think its 48 hours by bus.

click here for info on Salvador
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador,_Bahia

I met an Aussie named Ben that I´m going to travel with to Montevideo, Uruguay next Tueday. We are going to check out the city and punta del este (nearby awesome beachs). Its 9 hours by bus to Montevideo.

click here for info on montevideo and punta del este
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montevideo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punta_Del_Este


I think we´re going out for more wine and steak tonight.

Oh yes, one more thing, the local women here are knock your socks off beautiful. They are absoloutly stunning. Alas, if only my Spanish wasn´t attrocious.

Some Notes

>i´m going to attempt to update the blog twice a week. Monday and Thursday.

>someone please send me a list of adjectives so that I don´t use amazing, awesome, and cool to describe anything and everything.

>I have pix to upload but brought the wrong cable to the internet cafe. I´ll be sure to put some pix in my next post.

>I´ve turned the comments section on. Please keep in mind that my Mom is reading this. If it gets bad I´ll have to turn the comments off again. That would suck.

> I have some info on a great tour company and individual guide for Macchu Pichu. If anyone is intersted let me know. You´ll probably going to need to take off of work for 10 days. I dón´t think it will end up being that expensive. Its a 4 day guided hike to the site. The rest of the time we´ll spend in Cusco, Peru. I´ve heard nothing but great stories about Cusco. You can hire porters to carry your bag for you the entire way for 50us dollars. The guides cook you three meals a day. I´m shooting to be there in early April. Email me if you´re down.

Click here for info on Macchu Pichu and Cusco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchu_pichu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cusco

DEATH TO ALL SPANISH KEYBOARDS... what the hell is this supposed to be (ç)... or this (¿)