Boca Juniors and Iguazu Falls

Well, i sure feel like weve been here more than a week. Since i last wrote juli and i went to a futbol match in BA, the boca juniors who played tigre, and us and a few girls from the hostel traipsed into the seedy or so called neighborhood of boca, to buy cheap tickets and see some crazy fans in action, which we did indeed. We were right in the middle of where the die hard, ever singing, flag hanging boca juniors fans were and it was amazing. But Juli and i were both glad to be gone from BA, even though the weather was getting better, it was just not hitting the mark. Puerto Iguazuen el otro lado, es muy tranquillo y bonita y tenemos una piscina aca. We took an amazing busride that puts greyhound, and pretty much the USAs public transit to shame, semi cama which is third lowest on the rung of awesome busses gave us fully reclining seats, warm and delicios dinner, including pretty much the only vegetable id seen all week, ( this delicious spinnach feta something?), pirated and dubbed in spanish viewing of the dark night, and all in all a great ride of 18 hours or so from BA to Puerto Iguazu.

Our hostel is so amazing that immediately we booked another night when we got there, and then another, and now its been 4 nights and well both be super sad to leave the glorious paradise that is the Hostel Inn of Iguazu falls. First of all, there is glorious tropical weather, a huge ass pool, with surrounding hammocks, and a ping pong table (dont be jealous sean, i haven´t even used it yet bc its so fabulously busy all the time) and is a sunbathing fantasy. Especially coming from bustling, dirty and cold BA. AHH what could go wrong.

Well i wake up after our first night there totally fucking sick. A girl at our last hostel who was sleeping above me was sick and im sure i contracted this bastard of a sickness from her. Sore throat, body aches, blech. But i pulled it together and Juli and I rocked Iguazu Falls. First we walked to la garganta del diablo, or the devil´s throat of the waterfalls which is this enormous convergence of white massive waterfalls that is insane, also insanely busy with tourists. Still feeling totally shitty, we traipsed down onto the Machuco trail, all the trails btw are filled with these, seriously R.O.U.S´s called coaties which are smallish raccoon did it with an anteater type guys that feast on the garbage of tourists and could probably valosa raptor the shit out of you if you were alone and a pack surrounded you. But anyways, we walked forever, playing 20 questions, then 20 questions movie edition, and then 7 degrees of Morgan Freeman, etc. Until we reached this gorgeous little swimming hole with a waterfall feeding into it, which juli totally swam in even though it was freezing, i was totally not feeling up for it unfortunately, but it was cool, i got to photograph.

The next day we went back again, and i still felt like shit, as did juli this time too, but her sickness had more to do with partying all night with brazillian dancers, and doing the macarena and matching drinking with various irishmen. And this time we went all over to the upper and lower points of the waterfalls, and i know it probably seems like the waterfalls would get old, but they are so enormous and so amazing that every time you see them you kinda wanna cry because of their magnamity. We even took a little boat over to this pequeña isla con una playa tambien, where you walk up some hella steep stairs for kinda a long time, but then you are really close to the falls, and it rocks. OH and we saw rainbows, it was like a my little pony wonderland i swear.

Tomorrow night we are taking another long busride to the town of Córdoba, which is vying for Argentinas 2nd city, and where there are many universities as well, and i´ve contacted some farms from wwoof to see if we can get some volunteering in towards the end of the month when we head to Mendoza, which is cerca de los Andes and is Argentina´s wine country. There is also a pseudo octoberfest close to medoza the first two weeks of october that we may try to take a day trip to as well. We will arrive in Córdoba at 4pm this Sunday, on my 23rd birthday, i can´t believe i am going to be 23 already, oh how time flies. Yes Berger, i get what you were talking about now. And then we´ll only be 4 years apart again? haha.

Las Primeras dias en Buenos Aires

Well the first few days in BA have been quite intersting. The first day we stayed up all day and traipsed to la boca, and basically just tried to stay awake, thinking we'd get a good night's sleep all night long. Well of course the hostel was having a party, and then of course we had to get peer pressured to going, where we drank wine and danced like crazy people. And as we know in BA the party doesn't get going until 1 or 2 am, so around then we took a crazy cab ride with Klaus to Club 69, where we paid 35 pesos just to get in and then i was pretty much ready to leave, me and Susan, our new friend from Holland and some other peeps left like eh 20 mins after we got there, leaving Juli and Tali and some others to party hard todo el noche. Then on friday juli and i got up, at like 11 30, had breakfast, chatted a bit, and proceeded to sleep from 130pm to 730pm. totally fucking up our un jetlag plan. And basically chilled out last night, went out to get some food, deliciosa pizza con mozarella and then slept. Today we got up early enough for free breakfast, which was cool, and then went to the Bus station to get our billetes for Iguazu falls where we'll go on monday. BA right now is just quite cold and we are looking for some sunshine and adventure, and BA isn't quite it right now. Then after wandering lost at la estacion, turns out we were at the train station not the bus station, and after going there we finally got our tickets. Then we hopped back onto the subway or Subte and went to Palermo, where there are lovely parks and museos etc. But we got lost there too, and finaly got some bread and cheese and hung out for a picnic, where we spotted a lazy cat just taking a nap in a tree garfield style. Hillarious. Then we walked through some parks and went to la jardin japones which was quite pretty and full of fat ass coy fish that are getting fed waaay too much. Manana we might to se the Boca Juniors in a little futbol match, and tonight i believe there is a fiesta de primavera en our hostel, so we'll probably chill here for that.
Chao

Buenos Aires!

Juli and I have arrived in Buenos Aires! After 10.5 hours crammed behind/in some shit show, we´re here. And we´ve already checked into our hostel, gone on a tour of la boca, seen the futbol stadium, and we´re now just really trying to stay awake. Here are some pictures of la Boca and of whatevah, Í´ll write more when im not so delirious!

I'm leaving

I'm super tired but wanted to post some pix from my going away party and stuff, Sean came to visit me, Melissa made African stick bread, etc. And to say goodbye to the U.S. and all my friends and family(except Jules) for one year. So adios, it's been fun, see you in a year with a new prez.

Into the Swing of Things

Well, it finally happened. I finally broke through my mental barrier and was able to screenprint. It took a lot of time, a lot of half assed excuses and a bit of space in the outbuilding, but I'm back in the game! At my mom's house we have this outbuilding, which used to be Jack's disgusting boy hovel, but which i converted into the most badass studio ever! i've got an old ping pong table as a huge surface, tons of wall space, tons of junk to use for art, running water, and hella wind and sun. It is pretty, pretty good. So i've been drawing, crafting, sewing, and printing and it is incredibly amazing! Me and my mom have sewed some pretty cute skirts, and she made me the cutest apron ever, and I also made some earring/necklace holder things, from a DIY recipe in bust, and i've been printing the shit outa some clothes too! The first day was a little tricky though, i used wayy too much ink and didn't use a blotter so it went right through the clothes, but after that i got the swing of it and rocked the casbah! I did some drawings and ended up with one of some lavender from the garden for the stencil that you see printed on all of these, and I can't wait to do more and more before I leave. I need to do some major thrifting though cause i'm running outa crappy clothes to print on... Yay for the outbuilding, aka my new studio!

Seattle

A little late I know, but oh well. Seattle was radical. I was able to spend tons of time with the Berger and watched waay too much Olympics. Enough to barf at the mention of Michael Phelps. I don't care if he's hot, i wanna see another sport already. Sean and I spent my first weekend in Seattle at his cabin on Lake Kushman. The weather wasn't so hot, but we got to go traipse into the thickett, canoe to a tiny island, swim, lay on a hammock, read hella, and eat even more hella. On our way back we even got to take a ferry which was awesome as we rolled into Seattle at Sunset. Other activities included: Many movie watching, go see Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder NOW! you won't regret it i swear! Also, good food eating; Wayward, Flowers, Than Vi, Vegetarian Bistro, PCC, Musashi, and much much more. We also rode bikes to Mathew's Beach, Played Tennis at Magnussen, read at Gasworks, shopped at H&M, swam in disgusting Washington beaches, and drank tons of coffee. We also got to celebrate our 3 1/2 year anniversary by going to Solstice, where we met and read and hang out. It was a really fun and relaxing time and I'm so happy to have gotten to hang out with my baybe as long as we did!

I Wanna Move to Mancos

hella land and that's how everyone ended up there. Oh, andWell, I've just spent the last week rocking the fam and it couldn't have been more awesome. Last friday me, mom, Eric, and Grandpa Whis departed to Colorado to spend some time with my Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Ron, my cousin Debbie, her hubby Turn and my second cousins Courtney and Cody, and MaKettle came
along for the ride as well. We flew into Durango, where of course my bag was lost, then drove into the town which is this cutesy little hippy-ish mountain town with many a breweries, shops and beach cruisers and had lunch. Then we drove up to Mancos, which is where they all live. In a nutshell, Debbie's husband Turn is from Mancos and his mom owns it's fucking awesome and like totally peacefull and relaxing.

Ron and Bonnie live up by the Mancos State Park, i wanna say but could be wrong, which has a big reservoir for fishing and such, and some good trails to run around as well. Plus their neighbors breed alpacas and had a newborn the day before i got there which was hella cute. There are also hella cows just chillin under their trees and deer families galore.

On Saturday we drove out to an even bigger reservoir where we had rented a pontoon ? boat and boated around the lake all day. Debbie and crew brought like six jet ski's and Mabel, which is this huge raft that you attatch to the back of a jet ski and then you get dragged all over the place, which is what happened to me when Debbie took me out for a spin. And jet ski'in is HELLA fun, and the water was nice for swimmin and synchronized at that. Then later on we had a bad ass dinner of tacos and such for mamasita and Grandpa Whis's Birthday. We also took part in a pretty hardcore game of gestures that i totally killed.

On Sunday we got up and took the ATV's out on a ride up the mountains to this little cabin that Turn's Mom owns. Again for a first time ATV-er it was a little weird at first but i got the hang of it, and courtney and cody totally smoked me, as per usual. And we rode all over the place through these gorgeous aspen groves up the sides of mountains and into wintertime avalanche areas and back again, and i was doing pretty, pretty good. Until, after about 4 hours of nonstop riding my hands started to get sore and i started to get a little tired. And as we're crusin down this rocky ass trail i get goin a little crazy and crash the ATV into a tree and feeling it tipping, jump off the side and to a tuck and roll bail to avoid getting crushed. Needless to say the bruises are ADEQUATE. But the ATV was fine, and we i thought it best not to tell ol mom, she'd just freak and i was fine anyways. So i let someone else drive for the rest and we went to the awesome cabin/old schoolbus hang out. Where we had some BBQ, beers, corn and a heated game of horseshoes.

ON Monday we drove up the enormous mountains to Mesa Verde, the US's second largest archaeological find. Which is where these old school cliff dwellers lived and basically rocked the winter and hot summer by building their cribs in the side of cliffs. There are tours you can take but you kinda have to be a badass, like not afraid of heights or afraid to die. So for the first one, Balcony House, we had to climb down the side of the mountian and up a 32 ft wooden ladder to get up into the cliff dwellings, which was the easy part. The dwellings themselves are really cool, there's lots of storage space for them to store up for winter and really cool Kiva's which are large circular dwellings in the ground that would've been roofed and where they kicked it during winter time and gave birth, and had religious ceremonies and stuff like that. Then to get out you have to climb more ladders and crawl through this tunnel and then climb up a crazy ladder and then on these foot holes that are left from the original inhabitants up the freaking cliff, with just a wiry fence protecting you from plumetting to your death. My mom kinda freaked, but she pulled it together and we all made it up. It was intense. We went to another one, Cliff Palace which was cool too, and no one freaked. That night we had some awesome BBQ and a game of Risk where Cody totally dominated, and a Gin Tourney that i was losing so badly at the beginning it wasn't even funny. But good times all around.

I was very sad to say goodbye to Mancos, Colorado. It was beautiful, peaceful, dirty, mountainous, and so much fun. I can't wait to go back very soon. My family was always a joy to be around, my Uncle Ron is as awesome as ever and seems to know about everything going on around town, Bonnie and Debbie seem to love living in Colorado and it must be so nice for them to be close to each other. Cody and Courtney are going to grow up to be the coolest kids around, that's for sure. And Courtney especially has some badass qualities that are no doubt a result of having such rad experiences like i had this last week for her whole upbringing. My Grandpa Whis didn't say much, but when he did, I think he was having fun.

On Tuesday I was off, out of the lovely country life and into the city. Los Angeles to be exact. The culture shock was definitely there. LAX isn't the finest Southern California has to offer, and it's charm was lacking, but I made my way out and shuttled as quick as i could to lovely Ranchos Palos Verdes where my other Grandparents live. The rolling green hills bountiful flowers in all colors, palm trees and ocean view are quite inviting. My grandparents are 90 and 92 respectively and they are still living together in their house with their german shepard Honi, and my Grandpa Jack makes them culinary delights every night and always remembering the martini night cap with three olives. Although they nap more frequently and are in bed by oh, 8:30 or so Grandma Fritzie and Grandpa Jack are very much a spectacular pair. Grandpa Jack took me out to the Post Office and on various errands, (and he drove) yesterday and they let me make dinner which was oh so nice, and i think its the first time in a while that my grandpa didn't cook it up. It is very relaxing now that I've come to grips with being in LA. Sun and newspapers and the trickling of the garden fountain are most of what's been going on here. And tomorrow I'm off again to Seattle to see my much missed boyfriend.

Pics to follow. Whew.