Eva Peron's grave

What I Will and Wont Miss About Traveling

from amber:
You'll notice there's a lot more wills than wonts.

I WONT MISS...
~hearing American music everywhere (lots of Madonna and Michael Jackson)
~washing clothes by hand
~16-hour bus rides complete with stupid American movies
~dodging trash, dog poop, broken glass, and homeless people in big cities
~meeting kids my age who don't have access to the amazing opportunities I have
~symphony's of snorers at Youth Hostels (In Tigre Delta Hostel, there were 4 grown men snoring all in different pitches and patterns. It was quite poetic for about 5 minutes...but Dad and I switched rooms.)
~feeling homesick (though it didn't happen much), missing my friends and wondering what beach they're at today while I'm freezing my ass off in Patagonia
~not having enough shampoo, toothpaste, or soap
~having to pay to use a really gross public restroom
~the painful feeling in my gut when we leave a great youth hostel
~putting on wet boots to go out to dinner because they're the only shoes I brought
~seeing people less fortunate than me and not being able to some something to help all of them


I WILL MISS...
~not having any real responsibilities
~meeting interesting new people every day at youth hostels and hearing stories of their travels
~my new friends - Annie, Javier, Bruno, Danilo, Debrae, Tony, Emma, Gonzalo, Beat, and Gabriel, to name a few
~being somewhere new every day
~learning about my Dad's childhood and family history
~catching the travel bug and not wanting to go home
~practicing Spanish with local artisans at craft fairs (like the El Bolson one where I got the dress!)
~never knowing exactly what is going to happen next - living in the moment and loving it
~meeting outgoing High School students and talking with them in Spanglish
~noticing that every young man ages 15 to 25 is pretty damn attractive
~the people from Bariloche, the beauty of Iguazu, the hippie tranquility of El Bolson
~Jauja ice cream!!!
~finding papers, leaves, rocks, pamphlets, whatevers to tape in my travel journal
~reading about a cool place and going there the next day
~getting to kiss cute guys on the cheek as we meet - what a great greeting!
~the friendly culture of Argentinians
~the excitement I feel when a hostel gives out towels and soap
~noticing myself not thinking about the stupid crap I usually ponder (school, homework, college)
~awesome bus seats on the second story, above the driver, with a panoramic view of the scenery
~finding breathtaking viewspots to eat lunch at. Among the best: lakefront with mountains at Los Alerces National Park, Iguazu beach with pounding waterfalls, lying in the snow on a warm day at Tronador glacier
~adding places to my list of places to go before I die and promising myself I'll go there in the next 10 years
~learning about myself while traveling
~playing dominoes, chess, and Texas Hold'Em at the 1004 hangout during a storm
~learning songs on the guitar from Beat, Madet (La Torre Suiza hostel) Javier (1004) and Mendu (El Bolson)
~feeling at home in a new place
~hiking up to a refugio in knee-deep snow and being rewarded by hot chocolate and a bright red sunset
~sharing inside jokes with my dad, such as saying "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!" whenever we're in a weird place (which happened quite often!)
~wearing shorts for the first time on the trip standing knee-deep in the refreshing water of Iguazu, staring at the incredible falls
~traveling with my awesome dad!

Thanks for reading our blog! We had fun writing it.

Love Amber

IGUAZU FALLS MOVIES

uh, turn your head for this one!

PHOTOS FROM IGUAZU FALLS, ARGENTINA

IGUAZU FALLS, SEPTEMBER 12-14, 2008

(border of Brazil and Argentina)

First we flew from Bariloche to Buenos Aires and got these shots of the Andes from the plane:

Then we flew from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu (tickets $180 each) to see this:

We spent 2 days inside the national park in awe at these marvelous waterfalls, a whole series of them coming down from a huge cirque. This is about 20% of the falls. See the boat at the bottom of the photo?


This is a panorama shot stitched from three photos

There were miles of trails and catwalks to explore above and below the falls

Amber convinced me to go the Iguazu, I wasnt convinced they were this cool until I saw them! To get Amber to be visible instead of dark in the foreground when the camera was focusing on the bright background, we set our Kodak digital camera on 'backlight - use flash'. (This $200 camera also took videos, see previous post)

This was a half mile long catwalk over the river to see the Gargantua del Diablo portion of Iguazu falls from the top; It's a huge loud funnel. You took a little train for 3K from the national park entrance to get to it. The whole park is wheelchair accessible.

Here is a 3 photo stitched panorama of the Gargantua falls from the top, Brazil is on the other side. Think of the sound!

It was hot and a bit muggy in the north of Argentina, unlike the cold winter in the south

There were other people around but we kept them out of our photos

You could pay for a ride up the base of the falls if you did not mind getting soaked. The next photo is a zoom closeup of this one:

You took a free boat to an island to hike up to this lookout point, imagine the noise and power of these falls!

The colors of the butterflies were amazing

Amber said the falls were the highlight of the trip!


Amber stayed in this spot a long time


This is about 20% of the falls, they came down a huge cirque

Bye Iguazu!

LAST POST FROM ARGENTINA

Sept 13, 2008

We ate our last restaurant meal of the trip here in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina tonight, at the reasonable Argentine hour of 9 to 11PM. Amber had parilla, an assortment of greasy meats including blood sausage, and I had the local fish, pacu, with roquefort and mushroom sauces. The glass of white wine I thought I ordered for $4 turned out to be a bottle. The included appetizers included tongue, and since there was a mounted cow head on the wall above us, I asked the waiter "Es la suya?" (Is it his?), which made him laugh. We just had a taste of the tongue, that was enough.

Here´s my list of the things I will miss from traveling with Amber in Argentina:

1) Seeing some teenagers goggle a girl´s tight fitting pants today at Iguazu and making them laugh when I say "se puede mirar pero no toca" - "You can look but dont touch".
2) Seeing the bright red of a sunset over the snowy Andes while sipping tea in a high mountain hut.
3) When your big decision of the day is whether to ski, snowshoe or hike.
4) Renting a car for a week then looking up the weather on the internet and seeing six straight days of sun after weeks of rain and snow
5) Traveling with your daughter and seeing she is having a good time
6) When traveling through a foreign country, putting a card into a machine and having money come out of it, every time.
7) Spending hours on your blog and seeing someone left a comment
8) Having lots of time left on your vacation
9) Having real conversations with locals in their foreign language, like about volcanoes or politics.
10) Meeting interesting people who describe their travels around the world.
11) Sleeping in a freezing mountain hut in the snow, but you are warm in your sleeping bag.
12) Ordering weird fish and meats in restaurants when you dont understand the menu
13) Having it snow 3 days in a row while you are staying in a cozy hostel with views.
14) Losing the first 2 games then winning the next 3 playing ping pong against an Argentine man.
15) Hiking and hiking and hiking most of the day with all you need (and more) in your backpack
16) Eating lunch with your daughter sitting on the edge of a crystal blue lake overlooking snowy peaks and glaciers
17) Watching your daughter expand her horizons thanks to you
18) Doing whatever you want with no money worries
19) Hearing your daughter say she will take her kids on an awesome overseas adventure for a High School graduation gift to them
20) Having foreigners go out of their way for you so you dont feel like a stupid American gringo tourist.
21) Looking at the world´s greatest waterfalls when a blue and red butterfly lands on your shoulder.

THINGS I WONT MISS TRAVELING KEVIN YOUNG STYLE

1) Washing clothes almost daily by hand in sinks and showers using tiny pieces of soap and hoping they hang dry in time for when you need them
2) Not getting a full night´s sleep because of inconsiderate young drunk hostel residents, traffic noise, screeching roosters, loud talking adults, TV noise, music, etc.
3) Managing to lose articles of clothing as you maove from place to place, even though all your stuff fits into one backpack.
4) Hostels with cockroaches, dirty bathrooms, lines to take a shower, no hot water, bread and jam breakfasts.
5) Putting on the shirt you just washed in cold water and soap, and it still smells
6) Taking a cold shower, then realizing the hot and cold water knobs are reversed.
7) Drunk teenagers on the 2nd floor above you vomiting, and it goes through their floor, which is your ceiling, and having it splash onto your jacket, in a high mountain hut.
8) Your last restaurant meal of your trip, your last city, your last bus ride, your last hostel even though it is noisy and gross.
9) Hearing young Americans on the bus behind you say "like" 100 times in a loud conversation
10) Feeling the animosity that foreigners exhibit while complaining about US government support of their former military regimes, and of the US war in Iraq.
11) Hiking all day in the snow then watching Amber put on soaking wet boots to go out to dinner because those are the only shoes she brought on the trip
12) Eating cow brains and cow tongue
13) Seeing how poor and unlucky most people are compared to me
14) Feeling like a stupid American gringo tourist

Still, you only live once, I can sleep more when I´m dead, and I would not change a thing about this great 6-weel trip with Amber Rose. Bon Viajes, amigos, y hasta luego! from kevin and amber Argentina - Chile 2008

Iguazu Falls

Amber posts:
Imagine the largest waterfall you´ve ever seen, multiply its size by 10, and imagine hundreds of them, side by side, pounding thousands of tons of water in the middle of a rainforest.

I know I can be a bit generous with my adjectives at times, but Iguazu Falls is undoubtedly the most inspirational place I´ve ever seen in my life. There aren´t words in the English language (but maybe in Mapuche?) to describe their sublime, spiritual beauty, but I will try.

When you walk into a park, paying $40 Argentinian pesos (about $US13), the entrance is a bit deceiving. ¨Is this Disneyland? Where´s the Matterhorn?¨Dad joked as we walked on the paved pathways, humming the Indiana Jones theme song. But as soon as we hurried past the slow-moving, sheep-like tourists, we reached the first viewspot and I was dumbfounded.

An infinite line of massive waterfalls, poweful and mighty, stretch across the landscape. Walking around the viewspots through the jungle on wooden platforms, I was often stuck, petrified; my jaw-dropped at each of the dozens of spectacular, unique look-out spots of the 200-feet tall waterfalls. The thick mist from the each waterfall usually creates a rainbow, and we were blessed with a sunny, warm day.

Birds clung on to the cliffs, dancing in the spray; vultures lurked on nearby branches, silhouetted in the mouth of a tunnel; lizards scattered across the rocks, heads bobbing to a secret song. A butterfly with pink and blue spots landed on Dad´s backpack.

After completing the upper circuit, getting the side and top views of various ´cascadas,´ we headed down to the lower circuit to look up from below. One of my favorite spots was right at the base of one - I stood in front of it for 30 seconds and was immediatly sopping wet. We took the free boat to Isla San Martin, went to a look-out point of 180 degrees surrounded by the falls where we had lunch (apples, locally made cheese, and carrots.) Dad took a nap on the beach while I drew and wrote in my journal.

To end our day with a bang, we hopped on the free train to Garganta del Diablo falls, the largest and most dramatic in the park. After a 15 minute walk on raised platforms above rivers and through forests of trees and ferns, Garganta loomed, infinitly releasing a surge of energy. Marking the border between Argentina and Brazil, Garganta is 262 feet high and U-shaped. The water spills over from a still, wide river, and seems to slow and freeze in time as it eases over into the pit. Somehow it plummets, creating a deafeaning but peaceful, constant thunder.

We took a lot of pictures, don´t worry - but neither the camera or my sketchbook can capture the feeling of standing at the top of such a natural phenomenon. I must have stood there for a half hour. It´s one of those places you have to visit before you die.

I´m using the $3 peso per hour internet here at El Guembe hostel in the city of Iguazu. We´re just 2 blocks from the bus station that makes the half-hour journey to the falls.

Tomorrow we´re going back (for half price!) and I plan on admiring and sketching more and hiking the 7K trail to Salto Arrechea where there are supposedly fewer tourists (though its not so bad once you´re in.)

Much love! Leave us a comment!
Hope all is well,

Amber

OUR WEEK WITH A CAR, Sept 4-12 (By Kevin)

Sept. 4 - After a week at the 1004 youth hostel it was time to move on. We got a car for 1050 pesos for a week, or $360. We drove with Emma, a solo 20 year old traveler, and Gabriel, an Australian who grew up in Dharamsala, India. We drove around some lakes and went for a hike near Tronador before arriving in lovely El Bolson, in a valley surrounded by snowy peaks. We found a great hostel with hardly anyone there, with foosball, free internet, and an American woman from Maine hanging out while sailing around the world. The hostel cost $30 and we had our own room. Sept. 5 - We drove to Indian Head Rock then left our car at the hostel and took a taxi up 4000 feet and 7 miles and hiked up an hour more in the snow to a tree sculpture garden and then to the hut. The hut was pretty cool, perched on the side of a mountain surrounded by snowy peaks, except it was Friday and there were a bunch of kids partying. Amber and I did a little snow climb above the hut on mixed snow and rock. We cooked our soup on the stove as the kids got drunker, until one of them threw up on my jacket. That was my clue to get us in to the freezing hut next door where there was some peace and quiet. The hut was only $5 per night. Sept 6 - Amber and I hiked the 7 miles downhill 4000 feet, which we felt in leg soreness for days after. We talked the whole way about Doodie, Robert, growing up with 3 brothers, my travels with Dad to Nepal and Switzerland, etc. Today was the artisans fair and with over 40 booths we had a field day shopping for souvenirs and presents. Amber got the most amazing dress, hand knitted by the artist. We enjoyed the cassis and fruita del bosque ice cream at Jaujas, bought groceries at the local market and cooked a dinner back at the hostel, where Amber learned ´Stairway to Heaven´on the guitar from Mendu. Two Aussie girls showed up who are going to work on a local organic farm. There are a lot of hippie types who live in El Bolson, a town we like a lot.

Sept 7 - After 3 nights in El Bolson we headed further south along the Argentine side of the Andes, first to Lago Puelo which unfortunately was full of trash. I complained to the tourist office lady about it and Amber said I was rude. Around Lago Futalaufquen on dirt roads Amber got to practice stick shift driving (uh, she needs more practice). Soon we arrived in Esquel, which really was not very pretty, but we drove up to the ski resort in a snowstorm and had a hot chocolate (hot milk with a piece of chocolate in it, called a submarino). We continued on to Trevelin (3 mills in Welsh) and found another cool hostel with only one other guest, a Welch guy being paid to increase the use of the Welch language there. Our own room at Casa Verde was $24, and we found a salad bar in town.

Sept 8 - On a beautiful day we drove in to Parque Nacional Los Alerces, full of lakes and waterfalls and snowy peaks. At Lago Verde was the most beautiful green water and we had a typical lunch of bread, cheese and jelly overlooking the beautiful lake. It reminded me of Banff and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies. We only saw one car all day. Two blue green rivers met in some rapids and drained into another lake. At some cabins the owner told us what hapened (in Spanish) when the nearby Chaiten Volcano erupted, first an earthquake, then a roar and smoke 30,000 feet high. Back at the hostel we met a British guy who was motorcycling from San Francisco to the bottom of South America. He was 5 months into his journey. Nuts! We had empanadas for dinner.

Sept 9 - It was overcast so we hired a guide to take us snowshoeing ($60) above the Mapuche Indian reservation of Lago Rosario. The snowshoes really help! We would be sinking in up to our thighs otherwise. It was a cold day, as soon as we paused for lunch you had to put on our extra clothes. In 5 hours we walked about 5 miles and gained 2000 feet of altitude. It was Amber´s first time on snowshoes and my second. Our boots were soaked, poor amber that is the only shoes she brought. She played guitar while I got us dinner in town.

Sept 10 - The rooster next door started braying at 7AM, he screeched once each 5 seconds for over an hour, that is 720 times I listened to it. Im suprised noone had wrung his neck yet. Amber slept through it. We drove back in to Los Alerces national park to meet up with a boat trip which took us to a 2600 year old Alerces tree. The ground was covered in clumps of ash from last month´s eruption (it stopped). The lake and glacier and peaks were more than beautiful. Amber spoke with the high school kids on the boat with us. We drove for hours on dirt roads back to El Bolson hostel, playing more foosball and guitar and using the internet.

Sept 11 - We drove up the Tronador Mountain road, 18 plus miles on windy dirt roads. You could go pretty fast because they only allow traffic one way up in the morning, and one way down in the afternoon. The road ended in snow and after a 1 mile walk we ended up facing a huge cirque with hanging glaciers and ice cliffs and snow. We saw 3 avalanches pouring down the slopes in front of us. It was an incredible spot. We hiked in the snow even closer to the cirque before heading back to the car and driving back to our favorite 1004 hostel in Bariloche. There was no more room but they let us sleep on mattresses on the floor of one of the workers. It was good to feel at home with our new friends. That night was another wine party with violin and guitar music then dancing music. Amber met up with her ping pong buddy and he showed her around Bariloche. His name is Bruno, he is in the ping pong picture posted previously. I tried all the wines and went to bed in a daze at 2AM.

Sept 12 - Today we flew to Buenos Aires and then to Port Iguazu, on the border with Brazil, 2 flights for about $180 each flight per person. The view of the Andes was incredible! We arrived at Iguazu with no hotel reservations, but walked to a few hostels mentioned in our Argentina book and picked the best one, getting our own room for 70 pesos, or $23 with breakfast. We had the local fish at a restaurant, $20 for 2 meals. Amber spoke with the British girls who are traveling for 5 months but running out of money, so they are heading off to Brazil where it is cheaper. Amber convinced me to go to Iguazu Falls because she really wanted to go and she paid for her own flight using some of her earnings from working this summer.

BE SURE TO SEE THE PREVIOUS POST, I JUST POSTED TWO VIDEOS OF US TANDEM PARAGLIDING!