finally set

A week went by, it actually flew by, and we had fuly loved our tie in Buenos Aires!! We couch surfed a Argentinian named Ariels place and he was so so good to us! THANK YOU ARIEL!! We couldnt have ended up with a better couch surfing host, omg, thank the Lord too hehe.  We ventured through out the city and saw everything we had time and wanted to see.  Palermo was one of our favorite areas, little shops and resaurants, great people watching, and an awesome little open air market on one of the days we went...  Dom had his birthday while we were in BA and it was so wonderful and relaxing, we went out bought some yummy food to make and did coconut shrimp, bacon wrapped asparagus, crab stuffed mushies and pasta for dinner! YUM! and I tried to do a vegan carrot cake and well... it was deeesss. Dom like it though (or so he said haha) so all was good in the hood.

We were originally going to stay up at a farm near misiones in Argentina, but as we have learned plans quickly change when your on the road, soo we figured our expenses and decided it best to head north to Peru.  Monday we caught a bus, let me mention it was a 3 day bus ride!!!!! from Buenos Aires to Lima to get to our next spot.  I dont think anyone should ever spend three days on a stinkin bus! It was horrible, well okay not entirely horrible, but we were only fed one meal and couldnt poop for days because you arent allowed to poop on the bus bathrooms, though someone insisted on pooping in the toilet and well, it was pretty and quite smelly. So to put it nice and shortly we were on a smelly, foodless, cramppy bus for three days with no movis in English (on our past bus rides we got lucky and had at least one english movie, but nope none this time)  After 72 hours we made it to Lima, where we then immediately hopped in a cab to another bus station and got on another bus to Barranca, which ended up being a 5 hour ride! BUT here we are in Barranca, a little beach town north of Lima!!

We plan on staying here for several weeks or so, we are working at a motel that is right on the beach, there is a guy from new zealand here and another peruvian guy so its nice to meet and hangout with some new people!! Yesterday and today we spent at the beach and already im lookin similar to my tomato friend... the sun is sooo strong here its insane.  Today Tom (the dude from New Zealand) gave dom some surfing lessons,hehe it was fun to watch.  The beach is nice huge crabs are all over scurring about and dipping into their holes and I find it quite entertaining to chase and momentarily torment them (im not actually just making them run around in circles) and their pretty big, no wussy crabs you see when you lift those rocks up on the beach bu crabs the size of my hand! its soo funny to watch and there everywhere.  The beach reminds me alot of the Oregon coast or Ocean shores though the water isnt as cold.  So were going to be beach bums for the next little while and love it up, the motel gives us money for food too which is an added bonus!! 

anywho love and miss you all back home!!
chao!

First Day in Buenos Aires.

After passing out on the floor of Ariels apartment we woke up refreshed and yet again excited to check out a new city. It was out of the ordinary to wake up in a nice apartment and make coffee and while brittni knitted like she often does in the morning I got to play the new medal of honor video game for xbox... weird... i just wasnt expecting that. But i cant play video games all day so we packed up some sandwiches and headed down to the center of town to meet Ariel. Suprisingly no problems with the bus, we got there and found him with eeaase. We started following Ariel down cobble stone streets and alley ways that looked like to me what paris probably looks like ( but i dont know ive never been to or seen pictures of paris other then the eiffel tower). after walking around wide eyed for a little while we stumbled into a crazy church but brittni insisted that it was a catholic cathedral... what ev, it was crazy. the architecture was elaborate as ive ever seen and the statues of Jesus were powerfull enough to bring old men to their knees... seriously in pues... after such an experience we seriously needed some pizza. so we walked from the presidents house to a neighborhood called la boca a cool and older part of town that was supposed to have bomb pizza, and it lived up to its reputation run down and killer pie. after about 20 blocks on foot i got to enjoy a cold pepsi and the best anchovy pizza Ive ever had. so brittni was reading about a cool part of town where all the buildings are painted differant colors and we could not miss out on seeing it. so we started walking towards the technicolor buildings and while i took a drag from my cigarette i noticed a police car with a crack head in hand cuffs in the back seat which was not too strange i suppose, but what was strange was the way the officer was looking at me. i thought he had a problem or something so i puffed my square raised an eyebrow and kept walking. shortly after our first encounter i heard a voice say "Chicos!!". I turn around and its that chubby cop that was looking at me funny from his squad car. Thank god Ariel was with us and could talk to the cop because he was trying to tell us that one block in any direction from where we were could be the last one block we walk he told Ariel to take off his watch and get in the next cab to anywhere but where we were standing. so we did and actually ended up in a really beautiful part of town where brittni got to tango onstage with a brown skinned argentinian man and we made it back to the apartment safe and sound...


StaY TUnEd...

Beach Town Babes!

While in Bariloche we werent quite sure as to where our journey would take us next, but as I mentioned before Juan recommended a wonderful little beach town in Eastern Argentina called Puerto Madryn where lots of whales and penguins could be seen. Both of us being down with lots of whales and penguins agreed that this could be a gnarly spot to see!
      After a long bus ride, I am loosing track of the hours spent on buses these days, we arrived in the early morning to Puerto Madryn.  We hadnt booked a hostel and were unsure whether or not we could camp anywhere near so we searched the hot spot for tourits at the omnibus terminal and found a flyer for El Gaulicho!! sounded promising so we set foot to the centro of Puerto Madryn, the flyer had a mini map on the back side which we thought could navigate us quite well seeing as though  the city seemed to be structured on a grid lock pattern... but it was rather unhelpful, and an older lady with few and far from having teeth pointed us in the right direction! Thank you teethless lady!! We managed to find the hostel within a matter of ten minutes.  Although check in wasnt until noon and it was roughly 7:30 we made ourselves at home, set our stuff down and chowed down on lots of free breakfast, we try and stuff ourselves with all the free breakfasts we can get at these hostels. 
     The day seemed as though it was going to be rather beautiful so instead of waiting around until noon to change clothes, brush our teeth, and get all dolled up for the day we hit the beach mucho early!! I think the image of beach we had dreamed up in our heads was entirely different from the beach at which we were faced with.  Yet, we couldnt complain it was a beach, with lots of brown nasty seaweed and pooping stray dogs every, later we found we had to walk a ways to get away from these little beach treasures. And so we walked, for a while and once we were tired of walking (we were aiming to reach some crazy cliffs, although we could see them from where we decided to sit our seats, they didnt look to entirely crazy) we sat and shell searched! YAY! we totes found awesome shells and have wonderful plans for these shells.  I think we got way to into shell searching, but personally I dont think you really can get way to in to shell searching. I would say we shell searched for hours, or so it felt like hours. this is a random side not but trying to say and type (because I find that I often speak outloud what I type) shell searched repeatedly was mildly difficult. ANYWHO! back to business, so yes shell shearching (I think it sounds better with the H added to searching...ok for real I am done) for hours entertained us, we are easily entertained... but it worked up a bit of an appetite.  We were planning on heading back to the hostel to cook up some rice and beans, but wanted to treat ourselves to some good seafood. We figured since we were at the ocean they best have some good eatin seafood! and boy we were right!! we found a restaurant that appeared promising as it advertised MARISCOS Y PESCADOS in a banner across the door, and luckily for us our waiter spoke some english and recommended a danky seafood platter. 
         We ate soo much seafood, no complaints though, it was indeed what we were searching for, and after seafood we got icee creaaamm nom nom nom!! haha that was tasty too, although the ice cream seemed a bit annoyed with me as I asked to see inside every barrel because I was unable to read the flavors... Dom got tiramisu (I think because it was the only similar ice cream flavor with similar spelling minus chocolate, but I could be mistaken...) and I got ha... chocolate, better safe then sorry right??  We walked back to the hostel while eating our ice creams and noticed that it was 1600 pm!! where had the day gone!?? It twas a great day in the sun and at the beach but we were both a bit tired and decided that we would have a chillaxx night in at the hostel... we settled into our room,whom we shared with four other men, and lounged around for a bit.  We find that we appreciate lounging around here in South America because we have had few and far opportunities to lounge around... you never realize how much you appreciate the things in life that seem menial while living every day life... like a sink!! Gosh all the times on this trip I wish I had access to a standard sink! I so appreciate my sink at home, and my couch, my fridge, my snuggie...well sort of heh. but on those long ass bus rides I wish I had my snuggie!! oh snuggie how I hope you are getting used well back at the apt.  ...
     SO, as I said, we took advantage of relaxation and how it felt oh so good... I then thought it was necessary, since we were having a nice evening in that we eat a salad!! All I have been wanting on this trip is a freaking salad and for some reason or another south americans really really like to eat lots and lots of MEAT (which I dont particularly enjoy) and starch... meat and starch meat and starch! just give me a freakin salad!! So I forced dominic to eat a wonderful salad for dinner that night, we went to the el supermarcado and bought every vegetable that I thought could make a yummy tasty salad and we got it, and it was the best salad that I can remember eating.  We also watched robin hood (the new one) which was tight.  And that was our fabulous day in Puerto Madryn!!
     We had been planning on staying several nights in the area and camping our on the Valdez Peninsula, but we encountered a minor bank scare the following morning.  We were going to rent a car with a girl from Colorado and drive to the peninsula, so we went to the bank to get some pesos..and well  the bank would not dispense us ANY pesos... Me being neurotic me, convinced Dom that the bank shut down his debit card because he hadnt informed them that he was leaving the country... so in a frenzy I sort of panicked but tried not to outwardly express it because I knew it was Sunday and no banks are open on Sundays and well WHAT WERE WE TO DO!! thankfully for the Iphone and Skype and the help of my father, we were able to get ahold of chase bank... thankfully they informed us that we must of been pushing wrong buttons on the ATM machine because they had not shut down the debit card and we had plenty of money to withdraw.  So we ventured back to the bank and well withdrew enough pesos to get us to Buenos Aires!! by this time it was to late to get to the peninsula (only two buses in the morning) and we didnt really feel like spending another night at the hostel... so the next best thing seemed to head north (again)!!  We spent the rest of the day at the beach until it was time to get it in gear and get it to the bus station!  We then caught a 20 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires... and to Buenos Aires we went, we did get lucky though and got tickets on the super duper nice bus with big leather seats!! So the 20 hours on the bus wasnt toooo bad... and here we are in Buenos Aires! Couch surfing at a man name Ariels house... yeeee

Lake Guiterrez trek

After our arrival in Bariloche and spending the night on the city beach in our mini tent, we needed some serious relaxing time.  I tell you it was a little stressful-worrisome-scary-cooold setting up our tent at midnight on some public beach where we were probably not allowed to camp in the first place... BUT we made it through the night, though the next morning we awoke and it was raining and we noticed a private beach sign do not enter (in espanol of course) we packed up camp faster then you could imagine.  We still werent sure at this point where we were headed, well we had some idea from a travellers blog we had previously, speaking of lake guiterrez! So.. we started walking and walking and walking, then we found cafe pueblo where we sat for probably an hour and a hour... flipping Mike Greens lucky coin he gave us trying to decide whether we should stay in Bariloche or head north to warmer weather.  Well, greeners coin said head north, but we questioned the coins ruling over our travels and ultimately decided to stay in Bariloche. 

         The next several hours were spent searching for 1) el supermercado 2) msr gas refill tank 3) numero 50 bus terminal y 4) a store with pots and possibly pans.  Thankfully by the grace of the all mighty...we found all of them! yay, actually I lied, we didnt get our MSR gas refilled, although we did find a store with the gas tanks but for some reason or another all of them were empty...hmmm...  but anywho we caught bus 50 and rode it about 20 minutes south of Bariloche, the bus dropped us off at a dirt in the middle of nowhere, nowhere being Nahuel Huapi National Park of San Carlos de Bariloche! The road sort of did a fork and we werent quite sure exactly which of the right or left to go, so me and my wonderful sense of direction chose the lefter route... which after a 2 km hike up a dirt road, lead us to the wonderful entrance of Nahuel Huapi national park, and so our actual trek began.  The andes es muuy bonita, and reminds me so much of hiking in the great northwest minus the butt loads of bamboo, soo bizzare there was so much bamboo everywhere which I was not expecting at all.  Dominic and I did about 8 km of hiking when we came to a sign that pointed us to "Frey" which was another 6 km or "Playa Munoz" only 800 meters away! yay! so we chose playa munoz, a) because it was a beach, hence the playa and b) we looked to where the Frey would take us and it was at the snowy top of the mountain, and camping in the snow didnt sound too appealing to either of us.  The 800 meters to playa munoz felt like it took forever, and it was steep downhill leg of the trip and by this time my legs were super wobbly... but we finally made it and it was oh so wonderful!! and we were the only people at this little oasis (though we didnt realize it was quite bigger then we thought).  We spent several days camping out and relaxing here, cooking our food over a campfire, we made several tasty meals mostly potatos and sausage and pasta and sausage (yes I ate argentinian sausage and it was super dank) and lots and lots of bread and cheese (side note to our parents, we have been living off bread and cheese this entire trip so were expecting mad tasty Christmas meals upon our return...heh.) Lake Guiterrez was amazing, though it seemed crazy to think that we were in the middle of the Andes mountains in Patagonia of Argentina. We spent alot of our time hiking around, collecting fire wood, building fires (mostly Dom) reading, and knitting, and it was oh so relaxing. though cold.  After several days when we figured we could go camp somewhere warmer we hit the trail yet again and headed back to Bariloche.  For some reason or another the hike back didnt take as long as it did to get to playa munoz, though the trail had become a mini river after a day of rain, and well I slipped on a mud patch and fell face first down into the massive mud puddle, mud my mouth, nose, hair, my entire foot black with mud, clothes covered in mud, and my arm somehow got caught and twisted under my bag and i couldnt move, so dom being the wonderful man that he is picked me up from my backpack.  It was quite horrible, and I hurt my foot pretty bad  (thats a prayer request for me right now!! healing in my foot so we can continue to hike and what not!! gracias!) But besides my fall we made it back to town safely otherwise.  That night we stayed at the backpackers hostel of bariloche and met-chilled with wonderful people from all over, drank some whiskey, dominic made me a yummy dinner and we hit the hay early.  At that point in time we were not to sure where we were headed next, we were thinking Santa Rosa, but Juan at the hostel referred to Santa Rosa as a "nasty littlte town" although I dont think its that little, we decided we would skip on Santa Rosa.  He did make a suggestion of Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic Coast, we did some research and it sounded wonderful, supposedly there is alot of whale watching and penguins on the beaches! ... SO here we are, we hopped on a bus that day (an over night bus) and made it to Puerto Madryn! Were hoping to do some more camping on the beach here, catch some sights of whales and maybe even run into a penguin or two!! eeek. penguins! sweet haha. anywho I suppose I should cut myself off at this point! Chao Amigos!!

Backpacking Through Patagonia.

So we left the blueberry farm in search for something new and exciting, maybe hot springs maybe a beach somewhere, anywhere but that barn in puerto montt would do fine. We escaped in mid day lite and hopped a bus for Bariloche we were expecting an overnight bus ride into Argentina and in the morning we would plan what to do next... to our supprise the bus ride was shorter then anticipated, the bus driver woke us up at about 9 PM in bariloche with a couple ciggerettes, no cash, and no clue which way to start walking. After pacing around the empty bus terminal for about 20 min we decided to start hoofing it and quickly became hopefull when we saw lights near by the station... it looked like a safe place to camp for the night. As we got closer to the lights and barb wire fences we soon found out that a prison in a foriegn country is no place for two travelers to camp, so we picked up the pace and kept moving. We were not alone however, a couple of stray dogs kept us company untill we found a private beach down town where we decided to camp out until daylight when we could try and head to the mountains... the thought of being out of the barn and being on the road again let us sleep easy.

When it rains it pours...

Well, this farm hasn't turned out to be the greatest farm we hoped it be... Dominic and I are both ILL,  the owners have been harboring us away in thier partical board built barn, no heat, no lights, and rats or maybe even coons have come in and eaten our only good food!! Its hard to appreciate being here when we slave away all day on this farm, then are sent out into the freezing cold and dark barn after work. Agh. I and Dom, dont really feel like we have been ourselves, lately, well for the past 3 or so days, all we have been doing is bitchin and moanin, but I mean who wouldnt!! I cant deny that Puerto Montt is a beautiful city, and we have come to looove Paola the swiss girl! But this is our vacation trip and it seems so unfair to be miserable here at this farm, slaving away for a family who is treating us so horribly!!... and then Dominic arose this morning with a brilliant plan...                                                                                                                                                         so i woke up this morning and it was a little different then the past mornings i have woken up in the barn. it was cold, dark, wet, and i hawked up  loogies and blew my nose all over the place. but this is no different then any other morning in this hell hole, the only difference was i asked brit why the hell we are  staying here and we both were puzzled. the bottom line is were sick of bitchin and being sick and slaving ourselves away to inconsiderate people...SOO were planning an escape from this blueberry slave camp and going to find some hot springs in san martin de los andes... stay tuned.

ARGENTINA HERE WE COME!!

blueberries, the beach, chicai...Puerto Montt!!!

OMG.. we loooove it here, were on a  20 acre blueberry farm...i made that number up because it feels like 20 acres hehe, thats on the beach  with an amazing family and a girl from switzerland!  We have get fresh eggs, milk, bread, and cheese daily...not the cheese but we could if we ate enough of it I suppose...  Puerto Montt reminds us alot of home, North Bend that is, the climate and landscape is the exact same, which is a refreshing reminder of  how beautiful our home is...Im in a tower right now lookiing out at the Andes Mountains, and two huge volcanoes that lie in Patagonia. This place is beautiful and we are soo thankful to have found it on the woofing list.  omg. totes amazing. there is so much more I want to say but my  internet time is limited! So we will fill you in soon about the work we are doing here, plus our mini adventures... we are living in a barn though, it gets cold at night but waking up to the Andes and the Ocean  daily keeps my mind off that part heh. Chao Amigos !