Carnaval in Oruro, Bolivia

We had a most deluxe train-ride through stunning red canyons and shockingly empty altiplano from Villazón. But when we arrived in Oruro, it was as if we stepped through the looking glass from a world of peace and calm into the absolute chaos of Carnaval. Already at 7am the city was abuzz with activity. The first band was already playing at the far end of the parade route, getting louder with every minute, men were already drunk, stumbling through the streets and peeing on the walls, and the sidewalk vendors were already touting their wares, “Amiga, compráme” to every tourist that walked by. Little did we know that outside these 2 days of Carnaval, this city remains quiet and civilized since the Oruro we were introduced to was a zoo, complete with bears, llamas, and a variety of devils dancing through the parade.

And even the spectators themselves (including us) were wild, drinking cheap beer from the break of dawn, dancing in the bleachers and engaging in huge water balloon and foam wars with absolutely anyone roaming the streets. Us tourists were especially prized targets in this Guerra de Espuma and we were so pelted with foam that we too eventually got caught up in the frenzy, spending ridiculous sums of money on foam and even stealing cans of it off of unsuspecting children whenever they had the audacity to spray us right in the face. Elizabeth and Kristian became our main line of offense, while Jason and I made up the defensive line, myself specializing in surprise retaliation attacks.

We carried on like this all day and after sunset retired the weapons and retreated to the upper row of bleachers where we made friends with a bunch of baracho Bolivians and Chileans, dancing and drinking way too much pre-mixed rum&coke crap with our amigos until one by one each of us made our way to the hotel room and passed out in bed. And that was just the 1st day…..

Bidding Bittersweet Farewell to Mendoza (La Despedida)

Sad because we never know when or even if we will ever see these people with whom we have developed such important relationships. My guess is that some we will see again and some we won’t and in unexpected circumstances. Happy because the connections we made with people here are one of the most important aspects of our time here. Happy because new adventures await. We spent a large part of our last few days in town visiting all our friends and adopted family to say goodbye. Instead of sticking it out to the bitter end at our apartment, we decided to spend our last weekend in our favorite day trip town, Potrerillos. We got it all cleaned up, got our deposit back, and moved out the day before had to. Aditionally, our landlord bought our refrigerator, matress, and cordless phone from us. We had one more big asado with our friends in Potrerillos and went rafting down the Mendoza River after midnight to the light of the egg shaped moon. As our bus left the terminal in Mendoza for the last time, our friends Monica, Eric, and Vanina chased the bus away waving and blowing us farewell kisses.

Happy Holidays

Wendy and I wish all our friends and family back home, and all over the world, peace, love, and happiness. We miss you guys. We were quite sad to miss two weddings of some of our best friends. We were with you in spirit and will celebrate with you in person when we next see each other. I don’t imagine that you feel sorry for us. We are living our dreams. We had the best times with our recent visitors. We were fortunate enough to spend time and have adventures with both sets of parents and Tricia, my younger sister. We have been lucky in that we have made some very good friends during our time in Mendoza. Even luckier still to have a wonderful adopted family with which we will spend Christmas sucking down that marvelous Mendoza malbec. I almost can’t believe that we only have two more weeks here in Mendoza. Communication is going to become a lot less frequent but we are going to try our best update you on our whereabouts with this blog and upload photos to show you where we have been. Here are couple links to little posts I just put up on other recent holidays in case you don’t like to scroll.

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Turkey Day

With a few minor substitutions; like beer-up-the-butt chicken for turkey, cherry sauce for cranberry sauce, and our familia Mendocina for our natural ones, we brought to Mendoza a lovely Día de Gracias. The day also served as our going away party for our Mendocina sister, Lula, who was subsequently leaving to entertain offers to play professional handball in Spain and work in Andorra where she can have a blast while earning a bunch of Euros.

An Occasion to Dress Up

Our secret plan to subvert the staid and steady Argentine culture with frivolity and mayhem was a smashing success. Halloween is not celebrated here, although many are aware of it’s existence. We were concerned, at first, about the success rate that we might have what with all the questions and concerns about dressing up we were receiving from our invitees. I thought they wouldn’t really get into it, but boy was I wrong. Rather than being timid about the putting on costumes, everyone put a lot into their costumes. It was as if the human desire to dress up as something you are not, to escape who you are supposed to be, had been repressed, and we opened up the floodgates. It was fun chatting and dancing and drinking. We even had two jack-o-lanterns. One was mine and a guy from Montana (the state) brought and carved the other one. I guess the repressed need to hollow out a squash and carve a face in it is not as deep as the one to costume up.

Nothing kicks a Halloween party into high gear as much as the arrival of the transvestites. These guys, like the rest, made their costumes from scratch. The kitty-cat, in particular was quite elaborate. The karate boys (not transvestites) put on a good showing as the Powder Puff Girls. Our Mendocina sister, Lula and Danish friend, Astrid, tried to drain everyone of their blood. And like the good Argentines we strive to be, we stayed up all night until the sun of the following day shone brightly enough to evaporate those feisty vampires.

These two photos, as well as some of the others in the photo set on Flickr are courtesy of Astrid who appears above as the vampire with a goofy hat. Thanks Astrid!

Filling in the Holes

It fills me with glee to hear that some of my friends and family are actually checking this site once in a while. Really, you should see me; I’m so filled with glee that I have to go to the bathroom every couple hours. I was beginning to think that I was wasting time on this endeavor. Anyway, if I’ve spent too much time on this silly blog, I have spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with photos. It’s a bitch captioning, orienting, editing, archiving, etc. And for what, most everybody I know is too busy to even look at one slideshow, let alone 15!! Well, what am I going to do…? I guess I’ll just hope that some people enjoy what they have time to. As of October 7, 2006, there were 9 posts on this blog, today there are 16 . I don’t know what’s going on now; I seem to be experiencing some type of hyper-productivity spurt. I hope nobody minds but I’ve filled in some of the more glaring holes in the story of my blog. Furthermore, as a convenience to regular visitors, following are links to new entries, chronologically no less, to save you from scrolling through the archives.

Vegas baby, Vegas. That’s right; I’m taking you all the way back to the gold plated turd that was our second stop out of Hawaii. It wasn’t really much to talk about so if you don’t have much time, skip to something really cool like Patagonia or Brazil.

Patagonia should be its own country and I would dutifully accept the responsibility of being its president. Watch the jaws of the Argentines drop with shock, incredulity, and disgust as these words hit the screen. Who is this imperialist Yankee that wants to take over Patagonia? Hey, don’t worry, my Argentine friends, my first act as president would be to protect the whole damn newly formed country as a world nature park, or heritage site, or patrimonial cultural, or whatever the hell you want to call it. Patagonia is rugged, remote, and, in my opinion, one of the best places in the world. If you want to read my posts on southern Patagonia, click here, or on the archive (left sidebar) for January. Northwest Patagonia, or The Lake District, can be found here, or in the August archive.

Buenos Aires, the cosmopolitan capital of Argentina has hosted me now three times. Posts from my first visit flying solo can be found here (archives from the first half of February)

Brazil was such great fun. If you’ve never checked out my Brazil photo set on Flickr, then you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the half naked samba dancers that bring Carnival to life. I have a post on the Brazil Bug, which I promised my Brazilian friends I would write. (Camila e Tiago, aqui é já e eu ainda não falo portugues)

Our month-long journey northward can be accessed here, in the July archive.

Our ten days in the Lakes District can be accessed here, in the August archive.

Scroll down a bit to read about our adventures with “Arturo y Susana” Bauckham. Highlights with the Padres include Tango in Buenos Aires, Jesuit Ruins in San Ignacio, the mighty waters of Iguazú, a day in Córdoba, and exploring the city of Mendoza and the nearby Andes. We ate a LOT, sometimes repeating meals just for the heck of it. We also visited a bodega and made an asado in Vista Flores.

The Brazil Bug

Tiago & I saw a bug. It was not just any bug. It was big and it was ugly. We closely inspected this nasty creature. It was taking a break from shaking the ground foliage to spend a while thrusting its head piece out-from and in-to its body carapace. UGH! Disgusting. While it was doing this, its back legs which were barbed and looked like crablegs, were wiggling behind it, under its butt. This was an enormous, vile, bug, doing really weird things. We tried to carry on a normal conversation. Or at least as normal a conversation as two or three people who don’t speak the same language can have. Every once in a while, we would mark its location by observing the quivering plants. We would take a few moments to gross ourselves out by observing the hideous bug. After a while, Tiago brought my attention to a gigantic flying bug. I remarked that at least it wasn’t that bastard from the ground foliage. Tiago informed that yes, in fact, it was. Oh, bloody hell. “I sure hope that thing doesn’t come near me or I’m gonna freak out”, said I. “I’d like to see that”, said Tiago. “No you wouldn’t”, said I, almost knowing, that having had that exchange, that it was inevitably going to happen. After a while, the unthinkable (if you haven’t been paying attention) happened. The hideous, vile, disgusting, enormous, flying bug flew at me! And crashed into me. And STUCK ON ME!. Noooo! I jumped up and down, and screamed (a manly scream) and shook myself furiously. When it was al over, I looked over at my friends hiding under the yellow tarp that sheltered my tent. What happened next was a surprise. They laughed and continued to watch me as if to see what antics would follow the preceding hilarious (to them) display. “Yeah, so?” I said, trying to regain my composure, “I told you I would freak out and that is precisely what happened.” Tiago said, in his thick Brazilian accent “It’s on your dick.” No, I looked down and lo and behold, affixed to the outside of my pants, in the vicinity of my dick, the hideous, vile, disgusting, head in and out of carapace, ground shaking, bug was. ARRRGGH! I smacked that thing once, jumping around. The tenacious demon remained. I swung again, this time harder, and hit meat. I would hurt for the next twenty minutes. I saw that the bug was knocked off my dick and onto the ground. Before I could think about what I was doing, I drove that bastard into the ground with my right foot. I hadn’t wanted to kill it, but obviously, I was given no choice. This ends the funny story… funny, at least for my Brazilian friends.