UPDATE!!

I seem to start every blog this way, but MAN ALIVE! it´s been too long. Time for a quick, abbreviated (kind of) update, in bullet form (without pictures, because trying to upload on this Bolivia internet is just not gonna happen).

Ecuador

*Moved off the farm, back to Quito for a week to struggle through my 30 pg monografia and 25 min presentation (all in Spanish, of course).

*Turned in, presented, survived (barely) and headed straight to the beach for one last hoorah with CIMAS friends (and Ecuadorian love interests ;) ).

*2 days of doing nothing but eating, drinking and laying around the lovely little beach town of Conoa.

*We say our goodbyes to aforementioned CIMAS friends and Ecuadorian love interests and Laura and I head north to Muisne to see the mangroves (VERY cool and special). On the way, stop over at another beach, Mompiche (is that what it´s called) where we sit, eating breakfast, when two beautiful, local surfing brothers come up and ask if we want to go see a black sand beach. We say ¨why not?!¨ and follow said beautiful brothers down the beach, through a forest, down a trail and onto another beach where the sand was completely black, the sky perfectly blue and the ocean strikingly green. It was quite a sight to behold. Chilled at the beach with the brothers for a bit, swam in the ocean, watched them surf then decided to peace out back into town for a mid morning piña colada and to find someone with a boat to take us to look at the mangroves and then over to Muisne.

*Spend a couple days in Muisne, take another tour of the mangroves, I learn how to drive a motorcycle, visit a very cool local nonprofit and chat about conservation of the mangroves and other community projects that they do, get $2 manicures in the house of some lady, eat ceviche de camarones and then catch a bus back to Quito.

*Arrive in Quito at 4 in the morning with no place to go, get in a taxi who takes us to a 24 hour seafood buffet, hazily remember drinking tea, sleeping for a couple hours in the booth, getting more and more sick, deciding to call Mr. Ecuador to see if I can stay with him a while, Laura books impromptu Galapagos trip, I sleep on his couch for the next week and a half with a fever and tonsil infection, trying to figure out next move.

*Book ticket to Buenos Aires!!!!!!!!!!!!

Argentina

*June 23: Quito-Lima-Buenos Aires. Get into BA without a clue in the world. Wander through the airport, have to pay a surprise $140 for a visa (thanks, America), change the cash that I have for pesos, somehow find a bus, don´t have coins to pay the bus, some guy pays my bus fare... 2 hrs later arrive in el centro.

*Somehow manage to get off the bus in the right place, find the hostel that was reccomended to me by Bricey-poo, check in, put my stuff in my dorm, go on the internet, meet the girls from my room, go to dinner at (what seemed at the time to be) a REALLY fancy restaurant, contemplated the stark contrast between the two South American capitol cities that I had just jumped between, ate delicious steak, drank delicious wine, went to a tango show, got home at 4, collapsed into bed, IN LOVE WITH BUENOS AIRES!

*End up staying in BA almost 2 weeks, meet really incredible fellow travelers, fall in love with the staff, buy some new jeans and shoes (hiking boots and farm jeans just don´t cut it in BA), go to a salsa club, take a tango lesson, eats lots of steak and drink lots of wine, couchsurf for the first time, make friends with a hippy artesana, wander through ecological reserve, meet Brice and fam for drinks.

Uruguay

*Day trip to Uruguay with Brice and fam, sleep through alarm, miss first ferry, have to buy another ticket, be really mad at myself for being so stupid for wasting time and money, drink coffee, get over it, get on ferry, arrive in Colonia, can´t call Brice, change money, go to locutorio to call Brice, can´t figure out what I have to dial, army of remarkably unhelpful staff do little to nothing to help, remarkably incompetent staff member #1 tries to help, calls some lady in Mexico 3 times, I never call Brice, I have to pay for the calls to Mexico, walk outside, sit in the park, want to cry, look up, see Brice´s mom, hang out with the Burgess´, all musuems are closed because Uruguay semifinals are on, spend 3 hours in Uruguay, hear some class Brice baby stories, go back to hostal.

Argentina

*Finally decide to leave BA, new English friend Nick and I head north to Puerto Iguazú to see some badass waterfalls (24 hr bus journey) , stay in hostel with only dogs, no other people, make pizza, drink wine, meet up with other English friend, drink more wine, head to waterfalls, walk around, run into other English friend again, stand at the edge of the world, take train to Devil´s Throat, get really wet, walk around a lot, take lots of pictures (coming soon) return to town, eat delicious Asian food, go to bed, wake up, wait in line for ATM for 1 hr, go to bus station, buy bus tickets to Córdoba, run back to hostel to get stuff, buy bus snacks, eat ice cream, bus to Córdoba (another 24 hr bus journey), give Nick a wet willy, listen to a really funny podcast, get off the bus (3 hrs late)

*Taxi to Brice´s apartment, get buzzed in, go upstairs, brush my teeth, shower, go to Alta Gracia with Brice and friends, buy a ring, go into a Jesuit estancia, Brice and I set off the alarm in the musuem because we touch an exhibit, Brice buys obnoxious bird whistle, annoys everyone a lot, go to Che´s house, buy some postcards, go back to Córdoba, meet up with Nick

*Drink lots of wine, take ¨city tour¨of Córdoba, drink more wine, watch How I Met Your Mother, meet scary racist Southern girl/friend of Brice, go to cool art musuem, eat giant hot dog, boogy down for Brice´s birthday, watch Spain win World Cup on ¨Superbowl Sunday¨, have awkard skype session with Nick´s sister, go to casino in Carlos Paz for the first time, go to chocolate festival in weird German village outside of Córdoba, Brice buys a green belt, eat some schnitzel (??)

*Try to decide where to go next, go to bus station and ask for schedules and fares to 1000 different places, decide to go to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, buy ticket, Brice buys ticket to Iguazú, goes to bus station, comes home because there was a strike, we go to bus station together in the evening, say our goodbyes, I find out my bus is late and will miss its connecting bus in Jujuy, incredibly helpful bus man refunds my ticket, walks with me to other bus company, buys me another ticket, I buy a Salami sandwhich and Diet coke, get on the bus, eat my sandwhich, listen to about 5 episodes of This American Life and Savage Love, wake up outside of Jujuy, it´s snowing, my bus is late, one guy tells me I missed my connecting bus, another guy tells me to wait a while, I drink some coffee, try not to freeze, go back an hour later to see, they tell me the bus is waiting a little bit outside of town, I walk to the bus, some French dude´s girlfriend took my window seat, a dirty hippy sits in front of me and smells up the bus, plays us some Bob Marley on his guitar, leave Argentina

Chile

*Get dropped off to enter Chile right outside of San Pedro, wait in long line in the middle of the desert, get really cold, walk into town with a group from the bus, Irish Michael adn Irish Fiona both happen to have reservations at the same place, I don´t have reservations, I walk around town, everything is full, feel like Mary, think I find a hostel, put my stuff down on ¨my¨bed, like 75 Korean guys come in and tell me I´m in their bed, they overbooked, nice man from hostel walks all around town with me, still can´t find a place, finally find a place for 26.000 chilean pesos (!!!!), no hot water, no heat, single room, I eat pizza by myself, meet up with man from hostel, go to little bar to get drinks, meet Chilean Thomas who is going to UBC for is PhD, fall in love a little bit, talk about alternative development projects, how we want change the world, drink some beer, listen to a guy rock out on the harmonica, I walk home and go to bed

*Wake up, try to pay for hostel and check out, credit card machine doesn´t work, don´t have enough cash, go to take out money, all 5 ATMs in town are out, I only pay part of my hostel and leave, go find Michael and Fiona, find another, cheaper hostel, freak out because we don´t have any money, book a tour (with no money), Michael pays for everything for me, buys Fiona a ticket out of town, we walk around town with no money, in the middle of a sand storm, it´s cold and miserable, run into Dutch kids from the bus, they haven´t eaten at all that day because they don´t have any money, we use the rest of Michael´s money to share some pizza, ATMs start working, I pay my debts, drink some celebrartory hot chocolate, try my first Pisco sour, go home, there´s not water, no electricity, go to bed.

*Wake up, pack up, pay up, show up in town to start the 3 day tour of the salt flats, eat breakfast, meet Emma, Nathalie, Johnny and Joaquín, head to Bolivian border, it´s really cold and windy, everyone else gets a quick and easy stamp, American Johnny and I get our passports put in a very unofficial envelope made from a peice of printer paper and staples for the driver to hold until we get to Uyuni, get into the jeep, roll out to the first lagoon, it´s too windy and dangerous to go any further, jeeps have gotten their windshields blown out by the sandstorm, the 6 of us chill in an unheated basecamp for 12 hours until they tell us we can´t go today, eat some instant mashed potatoes for lunch, get shown our beds, get into bed with every article of clothing we own, try to stay warm, eat dinner, go back to bed, decide that we´re going to have to spoon to make it through the night (-20 C, no heat), pick survival spooning partners and set in for the longest, coldest night of my life.

Bolivia

*Wake up, eat breakfast, are told the storm has slowed and we can go, I go to take a picture, my battery has frozen, other battery is dead, I´m without a camera for perhaps the most beautiful sights I´ve seen thus far, feel a little grumpy from the cold and not having a camera, look at lots of pretty lakes, flamingos, llamas, drive all day, end up at Salt Hotel in the middle of nowhere Atacama desert where everything is made out of salt and only the private rooms come with toilet paper (welcome to Bolivia), are warm, eat dinner, drink really terrible Bolivian wine, charge my battery, now my camera doesn´t work, feel a little heartbroken, go to bed.

*Wake up at 5 am to roll out to see the sunrise over the Salt Flats, head out, car trouble, driver Edwin makes up for lost time, passes all the other jeeps, we turn up at the middle of a vast salty desert just in time for the sun to pop over the horizon, still don´t have a camera, in awe of the Salt Flats, haven´t been able to feel my toes for a week, take some cheesy Salt Flat pictures, go to awesome island of cacti in the middle of the salt flat, eat pancakes (!!!), take more pictures (well, I don´t, of course), then head to see more salty things, a llama and salt museum, a place with lots of flags, ended up in the shit town of Uyuni, ate lunch at Edwin´s house, went to train cemetery (wayyyyyy cooler than it sounds), played on rusty old trains, went back to town, ATMs were not working, reserved bus tickets, went to try and find/change money, team scrounged up enough for me to pay the $130 for my visa, Johnny and I go to get the visa, they won´t accept my bills because they are slightly torn, I walk all around town trying to find other money, finally get my visa, eat some pizza, get on janky bus and sleep the entire bumpy 7 hrs to Potosí.

*Arrive in the highest city in the world (15.000 ft), Potosí at 2 am, all six of us still together go to our hostel, I take a shower and change my clothes for the first time in a week, feel warm for the first time in a week, wake up at 8:30 for breakfast and mine tour, put on hard hat and mining clothes, rubber boots, but presents for the miners (coca leaves, alcohol, cigarettes), head to the mountain, walk through the mines, get really freaked out and claustorphobic, learn about the really heartbreaking history of the colonization of Potosí, it´s rapid rise and then decline and the exploitation of the Indigenous people and African slaves in the mines, decided I never wanted to be a miner, chilled out in Potosí and watched documentary about the mines.

*Sleep in, wake up, go on internet, walk around town, sit down on bench in front of a church, Bolivian dude comes up and starts talking to me, I go walk around with him and his friends, drink some chicha, he tells me we´re in love, offers to send 20.000 1/2 llamas (one baby llama), 2 condors and 15 desert gazelle-like animals to my parents in Oregon for my hand in marriage, we eat some volcano soup that has a burning stone in the middle, drink some Bolivian beer, I peace out back to the hostel to meet up with Michael and Nathalie and we set off for this giant tower that´s like a mini space needle, walk up like 10 flights of stairs (which is quite a feat at 14,000 ft), climb up a little ladder into a trap door and then find this really nice restaurant on top! Eat cheappppppppp food, have a banana split, talk about how much I could never live in the desert, walk home, catch bus to Sucre, drink a lot of water right when I get on bus, have to pee really badly for the following 3 hr bus ride, get mad at myself for doing that, luggage compartment door under bus pops open while we´re driving, about an hour later driver gets off and closes it, I wonder if I will have a backpack when I get off bus, arrive in Sucre

*Nathalie and I go to our hostel, Emma and Michael to theirs, we decide to meet up at Pizza Napolitana, N and I get there and wait for an hour, finally order and go home to our dirty, loud, obnoxious hostel, move out first thing next morning into E and M´s hostel, find out they went to a different Pizza Napolitana and waited for us, laughed out loud, went to Mirador, ate a veggie sandwhich and coffee milkshake, got sunburnt, felt incredibly happy, in paradise, walked around, bought a hairbursh with the handle in the shape of a naked woman, ate a candy apple, gushed about how cheap everything in Bolivia is, went home, went out for fajitas, hit up happy hour, went to a club, dancing with 4 or 5 Bolivian men who came up to about my belly button, got in a fight with some Bolivian girls who didn´t know how to wait in line for the bathroom, went to bed.

*This brings us up to today! Today, I did nothing. And then I did more nothing. Then I spent a ridiculously long time writing this blog entry. Then I´m going to go to dinner with Emma, Michael and Nathalie as we´re about to go our separate ways, then Nathalie and I will head to our night bus to Cochabamba where I wanna see me some dinosaur footprints!! There are many pictures to post (and darling Michael took a bunch of pictures for me/of me at the cool places ande then transfered them all to my memory card so I have photos to show for my time).

I´m sure I´m missing out on some things, but this is a little overview of what I´ve been doing with my life in the past 2 months or so. I have about 3 weeks left of travelling (and not very much money) and I still have to go to Cochabamba, La Paz, Copacabana, Isla del Sol, Cusco, Macchu Pichu, bus all the way up Perú and spend a couple days at the beach with Mr. Ecuador, get a nice, golden tan to bring home with me, go back to Mindo to say goodbyes, get a new Censo, visit both my host families and go home! I have a lot more to say on that topic (the going home piece) but I´m going to save that. Just know that I´m just about jumping out of my skin knowing that I´m going to be back in the NW and see all of my favorite people in a few short weeks. I wouldn´t do it a day earlier, but when the 16th of August comes, I´ll be a happy girl. In the meantime, I´m going to continue enjoying the life of a traveller in South America, picking up all sorts of great new friends here and there, swapping travel tips, seeing some of the most incredible sights and not knowing what each new day is going to bring (this is kind of the lifestyle I was made for, I think).

Love you all so so so much and can´t wait to show off my pictures of all of my cool adventures! Can´t wait to give you all great big squeezes, sooner or later.

Big wet sloppy kisses from Bolivia!

mt