Week 8.5 to 9 & 10: Sitting at the bar with a Brasilian cigar

In the past few weeks I wrapped up my time in Arequipa & Lima, Peru and finally made it to Brasil. Peru was great and it really finished strongly. I hiked through the Colca Canyon for 3 days, & spent a nice day & a half in Lima.

The Colca Canyon hike was great, and nice alternative to the Incan Trail mostly because it included a paradise-esque half-a-day stop at this fabulosos desert resort. My only complaint is that this pic was purely marketing based and did not actually represent the clientele of the resort. Other than that one shortcoming the place was great; they gave Papi the Rain Man suite. That's right I just referred to myself as Papi. When you quit your job and decide to travel to South America during possibly the worst recession of the past 50 years you are allowed certain perks...one of them is being brash and selectively referring to yourself as Papi despite not actually being Latino. All I can say is, unlike the S&P, my inner joy was at its 52 week high when I was here. Life is good.

Week #7 to 8.5: Camino to the Top of a Rock

There's no nice way to say this...getting from northern Argentina to Cusco, Peru in about a day & a half was actually pretty miserable. A 24 hour busride + a ridiculously early morning border crossing to catch an early morning flight cannot be understated in terms of discomfort. I would rather roll around in thumbtacks than do this again. I would strongly not recommend trying to do this in under 36 hours. After enduring the aforementioned 24 hour busride from Salta, Argentina to Arica, Chilé, that included traveling at heights of over 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) which sounds all nice & dandy but it actually feels like this guy is sitting on your chest, I then had the pleasure of crossing the border at from Chilé into Perú at 6am Chilean time / 4am Peruvian time. I say pleasure because when you hire a taxi to cross the border you probably don't expect to be sheperded across international borders in a smooth Chevrolet Caprice. Sure the Chevy driver's manual will say this 'little 4-wheel slice of heaven' seats only 5 personas but when you're rolling in the 'Cla$$ic' model you can fit 7 peeps inside. It was glorious. Soon enough I was in Tacna, Peru where I caught my flight to Cusco and was finally at my destination. Whew.

Arriving in Cusco was a relief on many levels as I would have lots of time to relax/catch up on sleep and acclimate to the altitude of 11,400 feet ahead of starting the Incan trail hike 4.5 days later. And DAMN it didn't take long for the altitude to start slapping me around. I did nothing but drink coca tea and sleep for like my first two and half days. And I don't really have a good reason for this but I decided to try my hand at doing a casual little jog near my hotel on my third day...basically it was an uncomfortable combination of 1 part heart attack and 1 part coughing attack from the smog / car fumes. Once again let's add this to the list of things I do not recommend you do.

Week #5 & 6: North by Northwest

After finishing up my time patagonia my journey once again took me through Buenos Aires as to allow me to begin my travels through the northwest parts (i.e., Rosario, Córdoba, Salta) of Argentina. Only this time I think I finally figured out how to fully appreciate the city. Not sure if I have fully acclimated to a big international city that isn't NYC or if finally found all the nice places to go & chill but I when it was time to leave I didn't want to...I actually stayed an extra day in BA to keep the good times going. This was great as I was able to hit up the first futból game of the season for River Plate. River Plate, being one of the 2 major futból team in Buenos Aires, has a long & rich history that could probably come close to match any of the iconic sports teams (i.e., Yankees, Celtics, Steelers, Notre Dame, etc) we have in the USA. Surprisingly for as rowdy & intense as the fans are during the game they were just as well behaved & orderly post-game, despite giving up a late goal to Colon to have the game finish in a disappointing 2 - 2 draw that River dominated for the most part. Of course the police were out ready to throw down if needed. And it helps that alcohol is prohibited the entire game. Yes you heard correct.

Let's pause for a tangential point. As I am now concluding my Argentian part of the trip I thought it would be fun to pass along some of my insightful observations of the people / way of life here. In order to understand Argentineans you need to understand a few things...beyond their love of food, partying and mate (i.e. traditional tea) it's important to know they also harbor a love of Diego Maradona that is ridiculous, they work hard but on their own terms and they have the closest thing you get to a carnitarean diet...as you can tell I am a fan. Also I feel very confident in saying that a housing bubble does not exist here...however there may be a bubble in this. Seriously pick any city in the country, pick any street you walk on...you can find ladies undergarments in all shapes, size & colors. These are not even seasonal businesses...demand for this stuff is high year round. Apparently Argentineans love silky smooth ensembles the same way that Americans love guns & violence. Score one for the Argentians in this regard.

Week #3 & 4: Journey to the almost end of the world

Wow so the past 2 weeks were busy...every time I thought I'd have time to write the blog I would never actually have the time or the internet bandwidth to do so. It's becoming a real debate down here as to what takes longer...the internet or ordering the check after dinner, but I digress. I have a new feature to highlight...it is my 'TravelSkoot', which is nothing more than a 21st century creation for a checklist/mapping of all the places I've hit up thus far. It's cool because it's actually sinked up with Google local and easy to see, navigate, etc. Check it out. AHORA. Anyway the basic re-cap of past 2 weeks is that I finished up my stay in Bariloche and journeyed south, VERY south to El Calafate in the Patagonia region of Argentina.

The back end of my trip to Bariloche was tremendous. I was able to check out the base of Monte Tronodor and see the edge of the Ventisquero Negra (black glaciar) sitting on top of it, take a nice bike ride on the Circuito Chico where I was able to check out Argentina's allegedly most popular resort Llao Llao from afar, take a nice leisurely hike on top of Cerro Otto and relax in the forests near Lago Gutiérrez. However the real highlight of my time in Bariloche was getting an in-person viewing of this waterfall dance, as performed by a local. Leaving Bariloche was not easy because I had such a great time there...the chocolate, the hiking, the weather and the food...the list goes on. Anybody who knows me well knows that I love to eat. In the words of wiseman / wisecracker Ronnie L, "There are 2 types of people in this world. Those who eat to live and those who live to eat." Well I. LIVE. TO. EAT. So dropping me in a city / gateway to culinary heaven like Bariloche seriously appealed to me. Take a look at what the power of the consuming this Bariloche chocolate did to this cool Brit I met. Now let's all agree to never discuss this photo again. Onto El Calafate...

Week #2: Beach + Mountains = Good times

Hello yall. I´m happy to report that this week has gone considerably smoother than last week with one relatively minor curveball. Without getting into the sordid details suffice to say that deciding to stay at a no-frills, 10 miles out of town, dirty & dusty hostel was a bad idea. Well that's what you get when you're forced to book last minute for the first few days in Mar Del Plata. Adding to the banner experience was that in the end we got screwed out of our last nights deposit by the dishonest owner. I'm cool now but during the time of our getting 'screwed over' by the owner I immediately began lobbing F-bombs like O'Reilly in the direction of said proprietor. What can I say?...I felt an intense obligation to represent NYC. Nonetheless Mark & myself had a strong finish in Mar Del Plata as we enjoyed our final 3 days at the local Sheraton courtesy of my Starwood points. In between all the drama we managed to find some time to horse around, chill at the pool, check out the famously crowded Mar Del Plata beaches and soak up the really nice coastal landscape. Also on the edge of town we found this ridiculous, seemingly never-ending sunflower field...kinda strange but cool. Also we enjoyed the prime seaside location to hit up some good seafood...and of course my foolproof method for choosing the best seafood came through once again. I suggest you follow and begin only eating at places that have large, plastic replicas of the main courses you wish to eat. This will work I swear.

After finishing off our Presidential stay at the Sheraton I enjoyed a not-so-fun 20 hour busride to Bariloche but was worth it since it came with a wonderful meal. I'm now writing you from one of the more awesome/postcard worthy places I have ever been in that of Bariloche, Argentina (it is nestled in south-western Argentina on border between w/Chile). This whole town, which is in the middle of a big lake region is full of stunning views. I did a lot of outdoorsy stuff while here but will fill you in more when I get to my next posting in a week. But you can expect some pretty good pictures. That's right folks I'm just living the dream.

Week #1: A Rough Start

Arrived on Jan 14th in Buenos Aires with no problemas; however I did have a problem with the in-flight movie they showed. The weather is awesome...sunny & warm; it feels great (apologies to those stuck in a frozen NYC). BA is and isn't a great city. BA is not really the type of city that blows you away aesthetically upon first impression; at least not if you're a somewhat yuppie-in-denial like I am. In my experience you really need to seek out and find the best of what Buenos Aires has...and to me the best things to check out are its classic culture and food. In terms of culture I was able to "tear it up" one night on the dance floor. By "tear it up" I mean step on my various partners´ feet while learning the tango. Happy I did it though...if you should ever find yourself in BA then by all means check out Días de Tango; seriously you will not find an experience that will expose you to such a universally beautiful & cool dance style that, in a small way, connects you to the locals while simultaneously crushing your dancing confidence. I've comes to terms with the fact that a blind guy can dance the tango better than me. Here's an actual video of the tango as performed by one of the staff at my hostel who is also a local porteño (i.e. porteño is to BA what a New Yorker is to NYC).

Intro

So here it is folks...my inaugural entry into my South American blog. At the very least I´m sure I will amuse myself writing this blog and I also thought it would be interesting to stay connected with y'all somehow while I'm on the road traveling & having difficulty speaking my 31 words of spanish. I have no expectations for what this blog is supposed to be and you shouldn't either. Let's not forget what a local wiseman named Bavaro once said, "The lower your expectations the better the experience"...and that applies to not only the NYC dating scene but also here. I'm hoping to update it once a week with one or two anecdotes, random thoughts and beautiful/silly pics from that week. Of course this is not a one-way relationship so please feel free to email, text or otherwise harass me in any way technologically feasible on your end and let me know how much you love the blog and how life is in the Big Apple and/or your local environ. Adios amigos.