HEY! I have a lot to say because the last few weeks I've done a lot so pull up a chair chief! I actually traveled and met tons of new people and spoke in spanish the whole time and basically have been doing what I came here to do : ). (and there are videos at the end of this post!)
First on the 9th of Sept. I went to the province Cródoba and visited three cities in the province: La cumbrecita, Villa General Belgrano, and Córdoba the city. It was just my friend Julie and I which made it a lot easier to travel and make decisions and change plans.
La Cumbrecita is a little town south of the city... and when i say little town I mean little town lol. We saw the whole thing in one day... by foot haha. But its a part of the province that was settled by Germans so everything looks really german but in spanish its kind of weird. We only spent one day and one night there. We hiked the whole day, went on different little trails and say the ponds and waterfalls and laid out on the rocks, it was great. Plus we were there on a thursday so there were no tourists there ( dang tourists : P ) so we didn't see anyone most of the day it was so peaceful. And you have to cross this small bridge to get into the town and its known for having no cars, like we saw maybe two cars the whole time.
Me at the beginning of the bus ride...
and me after about 14 hours on the bus...questioning if cubrecita is worth it...
Waterfall in Cumbrecita... worth in : )
so much cute
These are the signs that we navigated our way with...literally.
Those are the signs for the whole town.
Muahahah everyone around me is morphing into a tree-hugger just like me!
Then we took a bus to the next little town, Villa, and its even more german than the last. Its where they hold this gigantic been festival, Oktoberfest, every year and apparently all of argentina is in that town on that weekend. Its filled with souvenir shops and cafes and homemade cannery places that make jellies and dulce de leche and chocolates and stuff.
So we got to the town and freakin Julie lol loses the guide book and left it on the bus or something so we didn't know what to do, hostels to stay at, phone numbers anything. But we got the number of this cowbow guy who does horseback riding so we called and he picked us up on his horse with two others. It was so cool, but we had out backpacks n stuff so we just carried them with us on the horses, which actually wasn't bad. We went through this path on the back roads of the town along this stream that was sooo green. It was along the back gates of all the local residents' homes and so the old old man that was taking us on the ride would stop and we'd talk to people and meet everyone it was so cute. And everyone just had their horses and animals hangin out by the stream it was so pretty.
This man was in his 80's and so funny he talked to me tho whole time and told me the most random stories... for a long time lol. I was just a really cool experience because everything outside of the city is so relaxed and everyone is so personable and easy going. And I don't have pictures of me much here because a. it was hard to take pics on a horse and b. julie lost her camera which had more pics of the trip on in : (
Julie and her
horse named Pimpoyo or something.
THEN we went to Córdoba the city and Couchsurfed. Know what that is? well I will briefly explain. Its a web site which is basically a network of people around the world who offer their sofa or room or whatever for travelers to stay for free. So how it works is i created a page info like where Im from, where I'm traveling, what my interests are, blah blah blah. And everyone else has the same and you build up credibility when people stay with you or you surf with someone and they leave comments about their experience with you. ANYWAYS... Julie and I stayed at this guys house and it was awesome!
Right when we got there we left with him and his friends to the mountains and had an asado (Barbeque more or less), hung out and talked about politics (all argentines talk about politics, a lot lol) and drank máte (argentine tea kind of) on the river. It was again... really cool. At first mate tastes like butt, but then with sugar its good and now my roomate and I really like it. Acquired taste. Ill bring it home so you can all try : ).
This is a mate, its the thing they drink the mate out of. And this is mine : )
So then I came home to Buenos Aires for two and a half days lol just to go to class and then I took off again Wednesday night after class. This time with Julie, Kirsten, and our friend Meredith. We went to the province Mendoza first for 2 days and then to Chile for 2 days.
In Mendoza we went paragliding! (where you jump off the top of a mountain with a parachute but you can fly in the wair for a while its not just falling, its like sailing but in the air.) It was so cool I think I'm addicted i want to go again sooo bad. Its funny here too because its not like in the States where i would sign waivers and put all my info down and take a course or something. Literally it was like we wrote our names and passport numbers then got to the top of the mountain with the gear (we were attached to someone who knew what they were doing) and they said "okay walk and then run and down stop until you're off the gound. GO!" haha so there was no time to hesitate or think twice. We were in the air for about 30 min over the mountains and we could see the Andes (we werent in the Andes though despite my previous blog entry). Then they did acrobatics before our landing with spins and flips it was bomb!
The next day we rented bikes and rode to a bunch of the wineries because Mendoza is all wine country. We also visited some chocolate factory places it was so fun. We just rode and tried wine and rode and it was a really pretty path with big trees.
Cool drawing on the wall of the hostel: "In this moment you're exactly right here."
PARAGLIDING!
The crew
meredith : )
Me
"Holy smokes I just freakin did that!"
In front of wine muesum
VIVA CHILE! We went to Chile from there on another bus. We stayed with a friend of the guy I met from couchsurfing in Córdoba... Sounds sketchy i know but trust me it was so safe. So the weekend we were there was over the Chilean independence day so the whole weekend was a huge celebration. We stayed at the guys family's house in Santiago. Nicest family and people ever! Once we got there they had an asado and all his friends were over and we had a bunch of wine and then a huge dinner with his family (mom dad sister the whole thing). Then later more people came and they had a big party and taught us how to dance cueca, which is their traditional dance. It was silly and so much fun.
The next day we woke up late, his mom made us these tarts for breakfast and we just hung out in the front yard for a long time on the hammock, talking n stuff and we were getting ready to leave to catch another bus to the beach when his moms is like "nooo stay for lunch." so im thinkin... lunch. No. it was a huge lunch and his grandma came over and we ended up staying for hours more lol. It was so sweet they treated us like family and we didnt have to pay for anything they just wanted to take care of us. Then we went to the beach like an hour away and night and it was julie's first time ever seeing the ocean!!! Then the next day we got a ANOTHER bus lol and headed home to Buenos Aires. A 22 hour bus ride : ) sounds fun huh?
Casa de la familia Orellana
Freezing but gorgeous beach at night.
VIDEOS!
(everyone tilt their heads to the left at a 90˚ angle)...
Thutt: part where your thighs meet your butt (right where bike seats go)...
So folks, I think that is all i have for now. We're in the middle of midterms so I took my spanish one two days ago and i think i did well and my other ones are next week. And on Saturday I am going to Uruguay, Colonia for a day with the program so i should have more pictures soon. Eventhough you have enough in this never-ending post to last you a while. Again, miss you all and love you! let me know how you're doing, e mail me, skype me.
besos,
Kate
p.s. if it looks like I wear the same thing everyday on my trips... its because i do. Haha i just bring my backpack so i bring like 4 of the same tank tops and like one pair of jeans...don't judge me : P.
